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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/19073 |
| Date | January 2020 |
| Creators | Anand, Chitra |
| Contributors | Sivarajah, Uthayasankar, Mahroof, Kamran |
| Publisher | University of Bradford, Faculty of Management |
| Source Sets | Bradford Scholars |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, doctoral, DBA |
| Rights | <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />The University of Bradford theses are licenced under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Licence</a>. |
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