Corporate Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurial Orientation in Corporate Environment: A Discussion

Abstract

ABSTRACTCorporate entrepreneurship (CE) and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) has been discussed in literature substantially in the last few years. Although there seems to be a good overlap between the fields, there appears to be little discussion that includes both constructs. This paper explores the corporate entrepreneurship (CE) literature and the role of two CE perspectives, organizational activities and organizational characteristics from the perspective of EO. This paper builds a deeper understanding of the role that enabling characteristics and entrepreneurial orientation have as the prerequisites of CE. CE is presented as a process that has unique company prerequisites (referred to as enabling conditions). These conditions must be looked at and evaluated by the company executives. A careful management of these characteristics will lead to better organizational performance through higher CE within the organization.INTRODUCTIONCorporate entrepreneurship is an exciting topic that generates significant attention in both academic and practitioner circles. It holds the promise of rejuvenating our organizations, reducing bureaucratic red tape, and making us more competitive in the global environment.Progress in this field, however, has been hindered by the lack of agreement on the definition of corporate entrepreneurship itself and various related terminology (McFadzean, O'Loughlin, & Shaw, 2005). Notwithstanding, an observation is made that practitioners stand to benefit from the application of the accumulated academic knowledge, thereby aiding to the munificent considerations practitioners face daily. As a former practitioner turned academic, present author perceives an opportunity to explore corporate entrepreneurship from a new viewpoint, thereby attempting to marry different perspectives with significant theoretical and practitioner relevance.Further, it is readily observed that bringing corporate entrepreneurship into an organization is more complex than previously assumed. Corporate entrepreneurship is significantly affected by, and likely represents an outcome of an entrepreneurial organizational culture (i.e., entrepreneurial orientation) as well as enabling conditions such as favorable policies, appropriate structure, vision, and so on. From practitioner perspective, a greater focus is needed in order to develop heightened understanding of enabling conditions that lead to, and facilitate the establishment of, corporate entrepreneurial outcomes.Building on these observations, employing past research, this paper presents the reader with the framework designed to help with the implementation of CE within a firm or organization. This paper integrates concepts of EO and CE in a complementary fashion, in a manner useful to practitioner audience also.CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURSHIPCorporate entrepreneurship (CE) gained tremendous attention from both academics and practitioners due to its demonstrated potential to increase organizational profitability (Zahra, 1995). As managers try to ensure the continued sustainable growth, their attempts at implementing corporate entrepreneurship in their organizations are all too often frustrated by the lack of guidance and related know-how.It is widely accepted that corporate entrepreneurship (CE) is related to firm performance (PER) (Nihat, 2006; Vozikis, Bruton, Prasad, & Merikas, 1999; Yang, Li-Hua, Zhang, & Wang, 2007; Zahra & Garvis, 2000). For example, Yang et. al.,(2007) found that each of the key dimensions of CE has a differentiated impact on performance of firms in China. Further, Nihat (2006) found that human resource management practices mediate CE - performance relationship. Similar sentiments were also expressed by Zahra and Garvis, (2000) when discussing international CE and firm performance, as well as Vozikis, et ah, (1999) who examined the linkage between CE and value creation.The importance of corporate entrepreneurship is further enhanced with the increased hostility of the global environment. …