Organizations as biomes of entrepreneurial life: Towards a clarification of the corporate entrepreneurship process

Maria de Lurdes Calisto and Soumodip Sarkar

Journal of Business Research, 2017, vol. 70, issue C, 44-54

Abstract: In 1983, Robert A. Burgelman published an influential paper in the field of strategic entrepreneurship, holding that the autonomous entrepreneurial initiative of employees and top management's desire for it might be simultaneously present, simultaneously absent, or go in opposite directions, yielding paradoxical results. To the best of our knowledge, this proposition, that translates into four types of organizations with regards to the process of corporate entrepreneurship, has however never been empirically tested before. Our results partially confirm Burgelman's ideas, while uncovering an unexpected transitional organizational archetype. Borrowing from Biology we metaphorically identify these archetypes as biomes of entrepreneurial life. This study takes an important step towards understanding the corporate entrepreneurial process, contributing not only to scholarship in the domain, but also rendering our conclusions particularly relevant for practitioners. The uncovering of a transitional archetype also holds significant implications for the main entrepreneurship literature in what refers to startup teams.

Keywords: Autonomous strategic behavior; Corporate entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurial proclivity; Innovation; Intrapreneurial behavior; Intrapreneurship (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:70:y:2017:i:c:p:44-54

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.07.007

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