When intrapreneurs become entrepreneurs: the development of spin-offs’ social networks

The aim of this article is to study the development of the social networks of eight academic or corporate spin-off companies. These spin-offs have been set up by intrapreneurs who used to work in universities or big companies. However, intrapreneurs usually maintain strong relationships with the parent company, which may constrain their autonomy when developing their businesses. Consequently, to understand the conditions required for intrapreneurs to benefit from the initial set of relationships of the parent company and still be able to leverage new ties, we require a better understanding of the development of a new social network for spin-offs. We conduct a comparative case study of eight technological spin-offs in France. The processual and qualitative method is based on interviews with intrapreneurs who became autonomous entrepreneurs by creating their own companies.