Overcoming barriers to innovativeness: How corporate entrepreneurship fosters innovation in established organizations

Lennart Burger

Doctoral thesis

Abstract:

Due to increasing dynamics and complexity in the corporate environment, the im-portance of Corporate Entrepreneurship (CE) for the development and long-term sustainability of established companies’ competitive advantages is continuously in-creasing. However, the literature still lacks a CE framework that consolidates and integrates the different research findings and illustrates the impact of particular CE drivers. Using a dual research approach, this dissertation identifies which internal determinants promote CE in established organizations as well as how they nurture creativity and innovation. By consolidating the current academic research on CE and validating the identified antecedents via a multiple case study with 12 expert inter-views, this dissertation highlights similarities and differences between academic re-search and practice. The findings confirm CE’s overarching role in promoting crea-tivity and innovation in established organizations as well as the set of internal ante-cedents of CE. However, integrating academic discourse with expert knowledge al-ludes to a discrepancy regarding the definition and importance of individual deter-minants. In particular, the determinants of culture, autonomy, strategy, organiza-tional structure, and management roles should be considered in this context. By identifying this discrepancy and outstanding issues, this dissertation encourages further debate and research activity. The developed framework reflects the current state of CE in research and in practice and can thus serve as a guide for successful implementation of CE in established organizations. By doing so, this dissertation makes an important contribution to solving the puzzle of successful implementation of CE in established corporations.

Abstract:

Due to increasing dynamics and complexity in the corporate environment, the im-portance of Corporate Entrepreneurship (CE) for the development and long-term sustainability of established companies’ competitive advantages is continuously in-creasing. However, the literature still lacks a CE framework that consolidates and integrates the different research findings and illustrates the impact of particular CE drivers. Using a dual research approach, this dissertation identifies which internal determinants promote CE in established organizations as well as how they nurture creativity and innovation. By consolidating the current academic research on CE and validating the identified antecedents via a multiple case study with 12 expert inter-views, this dissertation highlights similarities and differences between academic re-search and practice. The findings confirm CE’s overarching role in promoting crea-tivity and innovation in established organizations as well as the set of internal ante-cedents of CE. However, integrating academic discourse with expert knowledge al-ludes to a discrepancy regarding the definition and importance of individual deter-minants. In particular, the determinants of culture, autonomy, strategy, organiza-tional structure, and management roles should be considered in this context. By identifying this discrepancy and outstanding issues, this dissertation encourages further debate and research activity. The developed framework reflects the current state of CE in research and in practice and can thus serve as a guide for successful implementation of CE in established organizations. By doing so, this dissertation makes an important contribution to solving the puzzle of successful implementation of CE in established corporations.

Keywords

Corporate Entrepreneurship, Innovation

Keywords

Innovation, Corporate Entrepreneurship

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 16. 12. 2020

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: doc. Ing. Ivana Blažková, Ph.D.
• Reader: Gabriela Chmelíková, Ph.D., doc. Ing., Ondřej Dvouletý, externi, Jarmila Duháček Šebestová, externi

Mendel University in Brno

Faculty of Business and Economics

Doctoral programme / field:
Economics and Management / Business Management and Economics