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Engagement of family executive members in intrapreneurship in the family business

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Abstract

Intrapreneurship is key for driving new knowledge creation and innovation. We seek to answer a major question concerning the motives underlying intrapreneurship, and particularly regarding what motivates the engagement of family executive members in intrapreneurship in family businesses. We expand social identity and role theories to explain the different social identification mechanisms that link family-family business identity (in)congruence to family executive members’ engagement in intrapreneurship. We also specify individual differences as boundary conditions—proactive personality and entrepreneurial mindset, knowledge and, tenacity—for the pathways that link identity incongruence and intrapreneurship. Our work contributes to the literature by advancing a social identity lens of intrapreneurship—explaining not only why identity drives intrapreneurship but also why identity incongruence may lead engagement in the pursuit of new venture initiatives within an organization, and further, by focusing on family businesses, contextualize research on intrapreneurship. Finally, we offer some important implications for practice.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers of this journal for their helpful comments and suggestions. We are also appreciative of the helpful feedback we received from Blake Ashforth, Michael Pratt, Nava Michael Tsabari, and Karl Wennberg on earlier drafts of this manuscript. We acknowledge the financial support from the Jeremy Coller Foundation (Grant No. 2019-1), the Henry Crown Institute of Business Research in Israel and Raya Strauss Center for Family Business Research (Grant No. 2019-2). All remaining errors are entirely mine.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Coller School of Management, Faculty of Management, Tel Aviv University, 69978, Ramat-Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Abraham Carmeli

  2. Hertzeliya, Israel

    Ari Dothan

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  1. Abraham Carmeli
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Correspondence to Abraham Carmeli.

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Appendix 1: Sample studies on intrapreneurship

Appendix 1: Sample studies on intrapreneurship

Research motivation/question

Theoretical anchors

Method

Key findings

References

Examining whether and why human capital moderates the influence of organizational support on firm innovation

Human capital theory; organizational support theory

Survey data among manufacturing firms

When a firm human capital is low, organization’s support is conducive for enhancing firm innovation

Alpkan et al. (2010)

How does intrapreneurship contribute to the development of responsible innovation capability in international organizations?

Intrapreneurship theoretical framework; Responsible innovation capability

Inductive (case study) research design regarding eight initiatives (product innovations and digital solutions)

Revealing mechanisms of non-profit intrapreneurship for building a responsible innovation capability

Ambos and Tatarinov (2022)

Construct refinement of Intrapreneurship and cross-cultural validation

Schumpeterian innovation: in pursuing and entering new businesses; the creation of new products, services, and technologies; strategy reformulation, reorganization, and organizational change, and risk-taking, competitive aggressiveness and boldness

Previously developed two scales are integrated into a four-dimensional measure of intrapreneurship

Intrapreneurship is an important predictor of firm growth in terms of growth

Open and quality communication, existence of formal controls, intensive environmental scanning, management support, organizational support, and values—all help an organization become more intrapreneurial

Antoncic and Hisrich (2001)

Why do faculty members engage in technology transfer, especially informal practices?

Academic entrepreneurship literature; Technology transfer theory

Semi-structured interviews with 30 faculty members

Revealing micro processes underlying scientists’ engagement in academic entrepreneurship and the implications for technology transfer

Balven et al. (2018)

Conceptualizing intrapreneurship and discussing its theoretical foundations

An integration of key socio-psychological theories

A systematic literature review focusing on the individual level

Offering a platform for scholars to study individual-level intrapreneurship; Specifying several building blocks for intrapreneurship

Blanka (2019)

Examining whether VC firms favor Schumpeterian-type entrepreneurs and which aspects of Schumpeterian entrepreneurship

Schumpeter’s theory of entrepreneurship; A digital identity perspective

A sample of 3586 ventures founded by 3313 individuals (3704 total observations at the founder/venture level) from Crunchbase data base

Some Schumpeterian entrepreneurship dimensions increase the chances of receiving funding from VC firms, but others predictions are not instrumental (as often considered)

Block et al. (2022)

Whether intrapreneurship is always beneficial, for the society and the firm

The Schumpeterian and Baumolian views of entrepreneurship

Conceptual analysis

Productive, unproductive, or destructive intrapreneurship depends, largely, on the institutional rules are set

Elert and Stenkula (2022)

Explaining what is intrapreneurship, who has it, and how can it be enhanced?

A psychological perspective

An analytical review

Intrapreneurship flourishes by a combination of personal and organizational work environment

Hisrich (1990)

Assessing the intrapreneurial culture of an organization by designing an intrapreneurial assessment instrument and its utility

Corporate entrepreneurship theory

A quasi-experimental design in a Fortune 500 firm in the Midwest

Environmental factors (management support for intrapreneurship, organizational structure, and resource availability) are conducive to fostering entrepreneurial activity within corporations

Kuratko et al. (1990)

How CEOs influence corporate entrepreneurship?

Strategic leadership; Behavioral social capital; Corporate entrepreneurship theories

Survey data from 152

SME CEOs and 416 of their TMT members

Transformational CEOs shape TMT characteristics (decentralization of responsibilities, risk-taking propensity, and long-term compensation) conducive for corporate entrepreneurship

Ling et al. (2008)

Exploring the influence of leadership styles on intrapreneurship

Transformational / transactional leadership theory; Social identity theory

Survey data among employees in Spain

Transformational and transactional leadership behaviors are directly and indirectly, through org identification, related to intrapreneurial behavior

Moriano et al. (2014)

Why organizations may rely on intrapreneurship to reconcile the integration—flexibility tension

Internal administrative coordination perspective; Market mechanisms perspective

Conceptual development through reference to the cases-in-point

Intrapreneurship may help in navigating the integration – flexibility/innovation tension

Nielsen et al. (1985)

What are factors that determine whether new business opportunities are exploited by starting a new venture for an employer (‘nascent intrapreneurship’) or independently (‘nascent entrepreneurship’)?

Human capital theory; Incentive (agency) theory

Analysis of nationally representative sample of American adults using the PSED II dataset

Nascent entrepreneurs tend to leverage their general human capital and social ties to organize ventures which sell directly to customers, whereas intrapreneurs disproportionately commercialize unique new opportunities which sell to other businesses

Parker (2011)

How the (descriptive and normative) identity of academic scientists influence their engagement in entrepreneurial activities

Self-discrepancy theory; social identity theory

Survey data collected from 2061 NSF-funded academic scientists

A scientist’s aspirational identity is key for engagement in entrepreneurial activities; A scientist’s sense of obligations to others (the other-guide) does not influence entrepreneurial activities

Pattnaik et al. (2023)

How leaders motivate employees to engage in intrapreneurship

Regulatory focus theory; Relational leadership theory; Work engagement theory

Quantitative; Individual-level; Work organizations;

Inclusive leaders instill a sense of psychological availability and drive promotion gains, which in turn facilitate employee intrapreneurial behaviors

Ramati-Navon, Carmeli, & Menahem (2022)

Whether individual-level factors and institutional country-level factors influence entrepreneurial behavior in firms

Institutional economics theory

Survey data extracted from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM)

Informal institutions are more vital than the social status for intrapreneurship in both developed and developing countries

Urbano et al. (2023)

Exploring the corporate entrepreneurship antecedents of a firm’s financial performance

Theory on the association of environment and strategy with corporate entrepreneurship; Theory on organizational values

Quantitative, Organizational-level; 119 companies from the Fortune 500 list

Distinguishing between internal and external corporate entrepreneurship;

High environmental dynamism, hostility, heterogeneity, growth-oriented strategies, and well-articulated values drive the pursuit of entrepreneurship

Positive link between corporate entrepreneurship and financial performance

Zahra (1991)

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Carmeli, A., Dothan, A. Engagement of family executive members in intrapreneurship in the family business. J Technol Transf (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-023-10016-y

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