Corporate Entrepreneurship: A Literature Review and Future Research Perspectives

Abstract

Background. Nowadays, corporate entrepreneurship (CE) is perceived as an essential approach to boost the innovation and creativity within existing organizations for achieving higher opportunities in the market. This paper examines this concept, which has been largely discussed in the Anglo-Saxon world over the last thirty years. Like for many other phenomena, also in case of CE, this discussion has provided numerous conceptualizations, and consequently, there is not one unique definition of CE. In this respect, the search for an appropriate basis for understanding and describing the phenomenon of CE engenders a challenging issue for entrepreneurship researchers. Research aims. This paper aims at creating a large platform for understanding the concept of CE by means of a clarification effort through the review of the most important papers in this field and identification of the existing research gaps. Methodology. Systematic literature survey is the applied methodology. EBSCO and Taylor & Francis database were used as a source for the sampling process. Key findings. The analysis does acknowledge the need for more qualitative and rigorous research in this field and brings several recommendations for the future studies. The main conclusions also do urge for a more diversified research in terms of the sectors discussed, as the biggest gap identified is in the services sector. There is also a need for a more structured classification of the measures, depending on the real research focus: CE antecedents or outcomes.

Entrepreneurial Behaviour Identified among SME Members of an International Group with Sustainability-Oriented Strategy

“…The most notable expansions happened towards corporate entrepreneurship [7][8][9][10][11] (vertically) and social entrepreneurship [39][40][41] (horizontally); both were breakthroughs from individual business to larger corporations, respectively, with changes in focus from profit-orientation to social goals. Socially oriented, social entrepreneurship continue to influence business principles; therefore, it is correct to consider them as intermediary forms horizontally between for-profit and not-for-profit entities.…”

“…The concept of entrepreneurship, which was originally related to business entrepreneurs as individuals, has grown both horizontally (to other activity areas of society) and vertically (to organizations). As (individual) entrepreneurship was the basis for developing corporate entrepreneurship [7][8][9][10][11], (individual) entrepreneurial behaviour represents corporate entrepreneurial behaviour. The literature on entrepreneurial behaviour (EB) is not that rich [12][13][14], and the references related to EB typology are even scarcer.…”

Reconciling Corporate Entrepreneurship and Product Innovation: An Evolutionary Economic Overview

“…Within this background, corporate entrepreneurship is one of the stages of the evolutionary progression in the theory of Schumpeter, starting from the one-man show of the entrepreneur, after which the entrepreneur conceptualizes his business idea and organizes his activities within a corporation in case of success (Witt, 1999). Nevertheless, as recently pointed out by (Popowska, 2020), this evolutionary progression is not separable from a constant evolution of the domain and the definition of corporate entrepreneurship. The concept overlaps with concepts like intra-corporate entrepreneurship (Pinchot III & Pinchot, 1978), intrapreneurship (Antoncic & Hisrich, 2001), entrepreneurial orientation (Hornsby, Kuratko, & Zahra, 2002;Knight, 1997;Miller, 1983), and corporate venturing (Vesper, 1990).…”

“…Nevertheless, research gaps still exist that need to be closed. To be more specific, (Popowska, 2020) mentions that corporate entrepreneurship literature is a predominantly quantitative literature, indicating critical problems such as sample size or the quality of respondents. The author concludes that there is a research gap in qualitative, conceptual-theoretical studies in corporate entrepreneurship and another research gap in the multitude of the measurement tools for corporate entrepreneurship.…”

Z Kuşaği, Kurumsal Gi̇ri̇şi̇mci̇li̇k Ve Li̇derli̇k Arasindaki̇ İli̇şki̇ Üzeri̇ne

“…Nevertheless, corporate entrepreneurship, defined as "the carrying out of innovations by existing privately owned firms (small or large)" (Granstrand & Alänge, 1995: 136), is still far away from being a clearly defined concept with its antecedents, consequences and theoretical assumptions. As recently pointed out by Popowska (2020), both the domain and the definition of corporate entrepreneurship keep on changing, and this poses a challenge both to the researchers and the practitioners alike. Recent research points out to four different strategic advantages of corporate entrepreneurship for organizations (Şahin & Şeşen, 2021): Opportunity recognition, organizational transformation, increasing operational capacity, and challenging uncertainty and change.…”