Over the past 15 years, technological change has introduced an unprecedented amount of competition in the global marketplace. Large corporations are at risk of disruption by global competitors, particularly the start-up community. In today’s highly competitive environment, the goal of every business is to get ahead: this is known as ‘competitive advantage.’ One way to foster competitive advantage is through innovation—the process of change, be it a new product, idea, or method. It can mean adapting the work environment to deliver an improved service or altering the business model. Large corporations are scalable business models by design. When a company establishes a successful business model, it monetizes that model to the fullest extent, supporting the model via corporate structures, processes, tools, and cultures. These companies now face a conundrum: the policies and procedures that make them efficient also stifle innovation, which is critical to business success in today’s ultra-competitive and ever-changing market. Large companies find it especially challenging to innovate successfully within the confines of massive, bureaucratic operational structures. Since most companies are designed to deliver under their current structures, any innovation that requires a change in business model or approach requires structural changes within the company. “Intrapreneurship,” also known as corporate entrepreneurial behaviour, has the potential to resolve the issues of innovation in large corporations. Intrapreneurship is a major competitive differentiator: benefits include increased economic growth, greater efficiency, the ability to manage change effectively, greater employee engagement and development, the ability to attract and retain entrepreneurial leaders, and sustainable growth. However, organizations are not aware of how to cultivate an intrapreneurial environment. In fact, organizations often unintentionally cultivate the opposite, by adopting risk-adverse policies, limiting corporate experimentation. The extant literature examines intrapreneurship at a firm level; however, there is limited literature identifying intrapreneurial traits at an employee level. It is these employee traits and behaviours that enable organizations to act intrapreneurially, resulting in value creation for organizations. Leadership engagement as it relates to intrapreneurship is also an area that is under researched. The support of leaders in innovation efforts is crucial for intrapreneurial employees to thrive and take ideas from a place of conception to implementation. This study takes a qualitative, approach, including semi-structured interviews of employees of a large technological firm and five semi-structured interviews with executives from media, technology, and finance industries. This research identifies specific traits of employees of intrapreneurial employees, including their behaviours and attributes. This research places the employee at the heart of the organization while positioning leaders and cultural elements on the periphery. It identifies curiosity, skilled risk taking, and experimentation as core intrapreneurial traits. This study also identifies the traits and behaviours of successfully intrapreneurial organizations and the role that leadership plays in supporting and developing intrapreneurial environments and cultures. Leadership has significant and positive relations with both empowerment and an innovation-supporting organizational climate. Top managers' leadership style has been identified as being one of the most important factors—if not the most important—when it comes to driving innovation. The findings from this research indicate that leaders need to play more of an active role in developing intrapreneurial activity. They need to evolve their role into shepherds who guide intrapreneurs in navigating the corporate immune systems. This research also evolves the conceptual framework of Antoncic and Hisrich (2001) by adding employee traits and leadership as new paradigms.

It is important for organizations to enforce corporate entrepreneurship in order to enable innovation and growth which can lead to more job opportunities and economic growth. Enforcing corporate entrepreneurship during growth is difficult and much of the current research contradicts each other by saying that growth is handled by formalizing and structuring while corporate entrepreneurship is enforced by having a simple and loose organization. This research aims to explore how a company can organize to prepare for growth while maintaining the ability to be innovative. An illustrative case study is conducted where a small company which is expecting growth in a rapidly changing industry is examined through interviews. The theory was thoroughly investigated and five central factors of entrepreneurial orientation (autonomy, proactiveness, innovativeness, risk-taking, competitive aggressiveness) were cross examined with five central challenges that appear during growth (differentiation, heterogeneity, external complexity, internal change, internal turmoil). A framework is proposed which contains identified dilemmas of remaining entrepreneurial during growth and suggested guidelines of how to organize a firm to meet these challenges. The organizational structure is identified as one of the most important aspects which influence the entrepreneurial abilities of a firm and therefore the proposed guidelines are based on the central factors of organizational structure from the theory (formalization, centralization, complexity). The results point to formalizing rules and procedures, decentralizing some of the decision making and enforcing good integration in a low complexity (internal) environment in order to enable autonomy and proactiveness which allows the company to be innovative, even as internal and external changes are taking place. Future research is suggested for exploring the impact of the suggested guidelines and there is a possibility in elaborating the guidelines for other aspects of an organization than the structure. / Det är viktigt för organisationer att vara entreprenöriella för att möjliggöra innovation och tillväxt vilket kan leda till fler arbetsmöjligheter och ekonomisk tillväxt. Att införa intraprenörskap medan organisationen växer är svårt och mycket av forskningen är motsägelsefull. För att företaget ska kunna växa krävs det formalisering och struktur medan intraprenörskap främjas genom att ha en enkel och rörlig organisation. Syftet med denna rapport är att undersöka hur ett företag kan organiseras för att växa men samtidigt bibehålla förmågan att vara innovativa. Ett litet företag som förväntas växa i en snabbt skiftande industri undersöks genom en illustrativ fallstudie och intervjuer. Tidigare forskning visar på fem centrala faktorer av entreprenöriell orientering (autonomi, proaktivitet, innovativitet, risktagande, konkurrensvilja) och fem centrala svårigheter vid tillväxt (differentiering, heterogenitet, extern komplexitet, intern förändring, internt tumult). I ett ramverk korsexamineras svårigheterna med att vara innovativ under tiden företaget växer och dilemman identifieras samt besvaras med riktlinjer för hur man kan organisera företaget för att hantera dessa svårigheter. Organisationsstrukturen är identifierad som en av de viktigaste aspekterna som påverkar ett företags entreprenöriella förmåga och därmed är de föreslagna riktlinjerna baserad på de centrala aspekterna (formalisering, centralisering, komplexitet) av en organisationsstruktur. Resultaten visar att formalisera regler och rutiner, decentralisera vissa beslutsfattanden och upprätthålla god integration i en (intern) miljö med låg komplexitet främjar autonomi och proaktivitet. Detta tillåter företaget att fortsätta vara innovativa även när den interna och externa miljön förändras. Framtida forskning föreslås för att utforska riktlinjernas effektivitet. Det finns även möjligheter att utöka ramverket till andra aspekter än organisationers strukturer.

Entrepreneurship is generally defined as the creation of new businesses - yet, nowhere is it more important than in large, established organisations. Product life cycles are contracting and businesses need to stay ahead of competition. Organisations need innovative and creative employees to respond to the changing needs of the market. Corporate entrepreneurship can be defined as entrepreneurial activities within an organisation, using the resources of the organisation to achieve innovative results. Corporate entrepreneurship (also referred to as intrapreneurship) is not confined to a particular size or stage of an organisation. This study focuses on the corporate entrepreneurial behaviour of middle managers inside a large retail organisation. The uniqueness of this study is the focus on the middle managers instead of senior management. The study aims to make management aware of the concept of corporate entrepreneurship and to identify the factors which influence entrepreneurial behaviour in an established organisation. / Business Management / M. Com (Business Management)

The topic of sustainability has found its way into the corporate entrepreneurship activities of large corporations. The Sustainable Corporate Entrepreneurship (SCE) strand is still in its infancy. Since most large corporations engage in corporate entrepreneurship and are exploring new business models inside and outside corporate boundaries, several questions arise from different viewpoints. First, from corporate perspective researchers and business leaders wonder which internal modes of SCE activities have emerged in business practice and how large corporations explore sustainable value propositions. Second, from entrepreneur and investor perspective, the question emerges which factors influence the likelihood of corporate ventures, such as spin-offs from corporations, raising venture capital to scale sustainable business models. Therefore, to further develop the field of SCE, this cumulative dissertation presents three research papers analysing sustainable corporate entrepreneurship at the intersection of corporations and start-ups.

Entrepreneurship is generally defined as the creation of new businesses - yet, nowhere is it more important than in large, established organisations. Product life cycles are contracting and businesses need to stay ahead of competition. Organisations need innovative and creative employees to respond to the changing needs of the market. Corporate entrepreneurship can be defined as entrepreneurial activities within an organisation, using the resources of the organisation to achieve innovative results. Corporate entrepreneurship (also referred to as intrapreneurship) is not confined to a particular size or stage of an organisation. This study focuses on the corporate entrepreneurial behaviour of middle managers inside a large retail organisation. The uniqueness of this study is the focus on the middle managers instead of senior management. The study aims to make management aware of the concept of corporate entrepreneurship and to identify the factors which influence entrepreneurial behaviour in an established organisation. / Business Management / M. Com (Business Management)

Henkel's New Business team is a corporate venturing unit that explores corporate entrepreneurial activities on behalf of Henkel Adhesives Technologies. The new business ideas are implemented through one of these models: incubator, venturing or innovation ecosystem. In current practice, there is no systematic framework in place to choose the implementation model. The goal of the thesis is to propose a framework for choosing the most appropriate model for implementation of a new business idea in Henkel. The thesis approaches the topic on practical and theoretical grounds. The first part outlines the related literature and theoretical focus. The literature covers definitions and theories of incubator, corporate venturing, corporate venture capital, innovation ecosystem and investment decision-making process. The practical approach relates to the company case studies of Philips, 3M and BASF. In this thesis, each model is analyzed based on a broad literature review, case studies and personal interviews with experts. The second part is the main discussion and analysis of the topic assembling with practical examples in Henkel. It comes to a recommendation that Henkel should prioritize and choose the most appropriate model for the new business proposal after the "concept scoping" stage, and before detailed investigation. It also proposes a scorecard framework that entails 14 key criteria for choosing the mode: degree of market competition, potential disruptiveness, technological risk, time to market, strategic alignment, degree of customization, dependency of related industries, technological newness of related industries, idea source, protectability of intellectual property, internal expertise, technological competence, commercial competence and parenting advantages. Furthermore, a new business developing strategy matrix is constructed based on two dimensions: strategic importance and operational relatedness. It is to further check the accuracy and validity of the results from the scorecard framework. Finally, it is suggested that future research can be done to improve the framework by adding weightings and scale of each criteria within the framework.

This cumulative dissertation includes three papers and one teaching case study. Together, they focus on topics highlighting the distinctiveness of family firms and new ventures. While the first paper analyzes the academic debate over the familiness concept in family firm research, the second paper focuses on explaining the unique relational dynamics between family and non-family managers in top management teams. The third paper aims to derive design designs for family firm specific corporate accelerators. The teaching case study shows how a growing new venture may strike a balance between coping with increasing organizational complexity and maintaining its distinct entrepreneurial spirit.

Corporate entrepreneurship has different strategies as referred to by researchers. An entrepreneurial orientation is one of these strategies. In the overall corporate entrepreneurial process, entrepreneurial orientation is referred to as entrepreneurial intensity. Corporate entrepreneurship is a process where organisations think differently to overcome barriers to improve the performance of the organisation. Entrepreneurial orientation is a process of decision making to develop new innovative products, services or processes to intensify the organisation’s performance. The South African banking system is supported with a well-managed regulated framework and is favourable in the global environment. South Africa is the financial gateway to the rest of Africa and the environment is highly competitive. During the last twenty years the banking industry went through exciting changes and turmoil when refering to the financial of 2008 crisis. Retail banks need to think differently and small competitors are more prominent than ever before. The lower end of the market created fierce competition between the retail banks in South Africa. The reason for this study is to focus on entrepreneurial orientations from a customer’s perspective. Customer perspective is critical for the survival of an organisation and banks are no different. Based on the literature, entrepreneurial orientation is the level of intensity of corporate entrepreneurship visible in the organisation. The results obtained in the empirical study enabled recommendations that can provide retail banks with useful information from a customer’s perspective that can assist retail banks in general. Recommendations found in the study include; retail banks need to reinvest in their own systems to mine useful information to assist customers, be more open to autonomy approaches and redesign job descriptions, re-look calculated risk areas that will have no influence on credit processes, regulate innovations better and involve the customer and be more unique to create a better customer experience. / MBA (Master of Business Administration), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Corporate entrepreneurship has different strategies as referred to by researchers. An entrepreneurial orientation is one of these strategies. In the overall corporate entrepreneurial process, entrepreneurial orientation is referred to as entrepreneurial intensity. Corporate entrepreneurship is a process where organisations think differently to overcome barriers to improve the performance of the organisation. Entrepreneurial orientation is a process of decision making to develop new innovative products, services or processes to intensify the organisation’s performance. The South African banking system is supported with a well-managed regulated framework and is favourable in the global environment. South Africa is the financial gateway to the rest of Africa and the environment is highly competitive. During the last twenty years the banking industry went through exciting changes and turmoil when refering to the financial of 2008 crisis. Retail banks need to think differently and small competitors are more prominent than ever before. The lower end of the market created fierce competition between the retail banks in South Africa. The reason for this study is to focus on entrepreneurial orientations from a customer’s perspective. Customer perspective is critical for the survival of an organisation and banks are no different. Based on the literature, entrepreneurial orientation is the level of intensity of corporate entrepreneurship visible in the organisation. The results obtained in the empirical study enabled recommendations that can provide retail banks with useful information from a customer’s perspective that can assist retail banks in general. Recommendations found in the study include; retail banks need to reinvest in their own systems to mine useful information to assist customers, be more open to autonomy approaches and redesign job descriptions, re-look calculated risk areas that will have no influence on credit processes, regulate innovations better and involve the customer and be more unique to create a better customer experience. / MBA (Master of Business Administration), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Thesis (PhD)--University of Stellenbosch, 2002. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study focuses on corporate entrepreneurship or intrapreneurship. Current research on the subject focuses on traditional theory of intrapreneurship in which the creation, structure and focus of business ventures feature prominently. Central to an intrapreneurship inquiry however, are the people who make up the organisation and their interaction within the organisation through structures and processes. Many members in an organisation can initiate and be involved in entrepreneurial activities, but the lack of autonomy and access to resources can restrict them from doing so. This study proposes a solution to these problems by focusing inwards into organisations and examining ways to foster intrapreneurship. It also emphasises the influence of executive leadership on organisational outcomes. In addition it proposes an answer to the question of how internal structures and processes can facilitate intrapreneurship and how management's relationship with staff can promote intrapreneurship. Through this the study adds to the current understanding of intrapreneurship. The study examines the relationship of a proposed intrapreneurship model to organisational performance, particularly financial performance. Lastly it examines intrapreneurship in context. Once an organisation behaves intrapreneurially, positive results could follow, therefore the relationship between one of the possible results, that of improved financial performance and intrapreneurship is researched in this study. Financial data form the basis of the calculation of many measures of performance. Organisations, however, are generally not willing to supply researchers with hard financial data. A possible way to overcome this problem is to measure financial outcomes through the interpreted views of management, for example that sales increased or decreased, rather than stating the absolute value. However, this is a subjective measure and the researcher decided to overcome this problem by concentrating the study on a sector of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange for which published financial data is available. The published financial data forms the basis for the calculation of an index that is used to discriminate between better and weaker financial performance of organisations. The study identifies nine dimensions of the construct Intrapreneurship, which were factorised into three key factors. Two of the key factors focus externally and one internally. The final intrapreneurship model that emerges from the study represents the organisation's innovativeness, proactiveness, and management's influence on organisational structures, processes and internal relations. This model represents product lines and changes, research and development leadership, new techniques employed in the organisation, the organisation's competitive posture and its risktaking propensity, its environmental boldness and the decision-making style of management in terms of external opportunities. The model also addresses internal structures and processes, as well as relations in terms of intrapreneurial goal setting - a system that promotes, facilitates and manages creativity and innovation. It addresses an intracapital system for supplying resources and it facilitates communication. The model allows for staff input to management, a degree of intrapreneurial freedom, a problem-solving culture and empowered staff. Finally, it provides for the championing of intrapreneurs hip by management. In the study, hypotheses are set to establish if a relationship exists between intrapreneurship and financial performance and to examine intrapreneurship in context. The influence of organisational age, organisational size and the organisation's share Beta on intrapreneurship, is examined. The conclusions of the study can be summarised as follows: There is a relationship between financial performance and intrapreneurship as represented by the key factor management. The key factor management is a significant predictor of financial success. Organisations with higher levels of intrapreneurship are therefore more likely to be financially successful than those organisations with lower levels of intrapreneurship. The key factors that represent the proposed model each correlates moderately with the financial index. The key factor added by this study to the traditional model of intrapreneurship, improve the correlation and enrich the model. The study confirms the view that organisations can be intrapreneurial, regardless of size, which is measured by both employee count and annual turnover. This finding dispenses with the popular view that only small organisations can be entrepreneurial. The study furthermore confirms the view that older organisations could be less intrapreneurial. The study finds that younger organisations tend to be more proactive in their approach in the areas of new techniques, competitive posture, risk-taking propensity and environmental boldness, as well as in respect of decisions to exploit opportunity. The study also indicates significant correlation between organisations' share Beta coefficient and two of the three key factors that comprise intrapreneurship. This confirms the notion that intrapreneurial organisations could be more prone than their counterparts, to volatile market movements of their shares. The study does not propose a definitive model, but presents a practical model that can be implemented - a model that could improve organisations' results, specifically in the area of financial performance. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie fokus op korporatiewe entrepreneurskap of intrapreneurskap. Huidige navorsing oor die onderwerp konsentreer op tradisionele teorieë waarin die skep, strukturering en fokus van besigheidsondernemings prominent is. Die werklike fokus van intrapreneurskap behoort egter die mense waaruit die organisasie bestaan, asook hulle interaksie deur middel van strukture en prosesse in te sluit. Baie individue in organisasies kan moontlik entrepreneuriese aktiwiteite inisieër of kan betrokke raak daarin, maar kan aan bande gelê word deur die gebrek aan bemagtiging en deur gebrekkige toegang tot hulpbronne. Hierdie studie het 'n oplossing vir die probleem ten doel deur organisatories na binne te fokus, asook deur voorstelle gerig daarop om intrapreneurskap te bevorder. Die studie poog voorts om die vraag te beantwoord hoe interne strukture en prosesse intrapreneurskap kan fasiliteer en hoe intrapreneurskap bevorder kan word deur te fokus op die verhouding tussen bestuur en personeel. Hierdeur word 'n bydrae gelewer ten opsigte van intrapeneurskapsnavorsing. Die studie ondersoek ook die verwantskap tussen 'n voorgestelde model vir intrapreneurskap en finansiële prestasie. Die studie ondersoek verder kontekstuele intrapreneurskap. Intrapreneurskap in 'n organisasie behoort positiewe resultate tot gevolg te hê. Die verwantskap tussen een van die positiewe resultate, naamlik finansiële prestasie en intrapreneurskap word daarom in die studie ondersoek. Finansiële data vorm die basis van baie metings van organisatoriese prestasie. Dit is egter baie moeilik om spesifieke finansiële inligting van maatskappye te bekom en daarom maak navorsers soms gebruik van uitvoerende personeel se siening van finansiële inligting, byvoorbeeld ten opsigte van die vermeerdering of vermindering van verkope. Dit is egter 'n subjektiewe oordeel en gevolglik fokus hierdie studie eerder op 'n sektor van die Johannesburgse Effektebeurs, omdat gepubliseerde inligting aangaande genoteerde maatskappye geredelik beskikbaar is. Hierdie inligting word gebruik as basis vir die berekening van 'n indeks sodat organisasies wat swakker en beter finansieel presteer, onderskei kan word. Die studie identifiseer nege dimensies van die konstruk Intrapreneurskap. Hierdie dimensies is deur middel van faktoranalise gereduseer tot drie dimensies, waarvan een na binne en twee na buite projekteer. Die finale model vir intrapreneurskap behels proaktiwiteit, innovasie, en bestuur se invloed op stelsels, procedures en verhoudinge. Die model verteenwoordig die uitgangspunt ten opsigte van 'n aantal produkte en die veranderinge aan produkte, navorsing en ontwikkelingsleierskap, die organisasie se mededingende posisionering, risiko neming, die omgewingsdurf en bestuur se besluitnemingsprofiel ten opsigte van benutbare geleenthede. Die model verteenwoordig verder bestuur se invloed op interne strukture en prosesse asook verhoudinge wat betrekking het op die insluiting van intrapreneurskap in die daarstel van doelwitte en 'n stelsel wat kreatiwiteit bevorder, fasiliteer en bestuur. Dit skep 'n sisteem van intrakapitaal wat hulpbronne verskaf, en verteenwoordig oop en nie-territoriale kommunikasie. Die model maak voorsiening vir personeel se insette en laat intrapreneuriese vryheid toe. Dit stel 'n oplossingskultuur ten opsigte van probleme, asook personeelbemagtiging, voor. Laastens stel dit voor dat bestuur die voorstanders van intrapreneurskap moet wees. In die studie word twee hipoteses daargestelom die verwantskap tussen finansiële prestasie en intrapreneurskap, asook kontekstuele intrapreneurskap te ondersoek,. Die resultate van die hipoteses kan as volg opgesom word: Daar is 'n verwantskap tussen finansiële prestasie en intrapreneurskap soos voorgestel deur die sleutelfaktor bestuur. Die sleutelfaktor bestuur is dus 'n betekenisvolle voorspeller van finansiële prestasie. Organisasies met hoër vlakke van intrapreneurskap kan daarom moontlik beter presteer as hulle eweknieë met laer vlakke van intrapreneurskap. Die drie sleutelfaktore van die voorgestelde model toon elk ook 'n positiewe korrelasie met die finansiële indeks. Die faktor wat by die tradisionele intrapreneurskapmodel gevoeg is, verbeter die korrelasie met die indeks. Die studie bevestig die standpunt dat die grootte van 'n organisasie, soos gemeet deur omset en aantal werknemers, nie 'n invloed op intrapreneurskap het nie. Hierdie bevinding is in teenstelling met die wanvoorstelling dat slegs klein organisasies intrapreneuries kan wees. Die studie bevestig ook dat ouer organisasies waarskynlik minder intrapreneuries sal wees. Jonger organisasies sal waarskynlik meer proaktief wees deur gebruik te maak van nuwe tegnieke, deur mededinging, riskoneming en deur omgewingsdurf. Die studie wys ook op die betekenisvolle korrelasie tussen organisasies se Beta (B) waarde van hul aandele en twee van die drie sleutelfaktore waaruit intrapreneurskap bestaan. Die gevolgtrekking is dus dat organisasies wat meer volatile relatief tot die mark is, 'n groter skommelingstendens het wanneer hulle met die totale mark vergelyk word. Die studie probeer nie om 'n allesomvattende model vir intrapreneurskap voor te stel nie, maar probeer eerder om 'n prakties implimenteerbare model daar te stel wat moontlik positiewe resultate kan lewer, veral in die area van finansiële prestasie.