IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/sbusec/v40y2013i1p27-39.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What’s so entrepreneurial about intrapreneurs?

Author

Listed:
  • Aloña Martiarena

Abstract

This paper discusses the determinants of becoming an intrapreneur. Individuals maximise their utility while deciding among three occupations: independent entrepreneurship, paid employment and intrapreneurship. I show that intrapreneurs resemble employees rather than entrepreneurs. Specifically, comparing the decision-making of intrapreneurs to that of entrepreneurs, the former are significantly more risk averse, expect lower but less uncertain reward and are broadly endowed with a poorer set of entrepreneurial abilities; despite having higher levels of human capital they fail to recognise business opportunities and have lower confidence in their entrepreneurial skills. A distinction within the category of intrapreneurship, based on the level of engagement and therefore the level of personal risks they bear, adds to our understanding of intrapreneurship. Engaged intrapreneurs, i.e., intrapreneurs that expect to acquire an ownership stake in the business, unlike the rest of intrapreneurs, share the attributes usually assumed to characterise entrepreneurs. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Aloña Martiarena, 2013. "What’s so entrepreneurial about intrapreneurs?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 27-39, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:sbusec:v:40:y:2013:i:1:p:27-39
    DOI: 10.1007/s11187-011-9348-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11187-011-9348-1
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11187-011-9348-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul Reynolds & Niels Bosma & Erkko Autio & Steve Hunt & Natalie De Bono & Isabel Servais & Paloma Lopez-Garcia & Nancy Chin, 2005. "Global Entrepreneurship Monitor: Data Collection Design and Implementation 1998–2003," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 205-231, February.
    2. P. E. Petrakis, 2004. "Entrepreneurship and Risk Premium," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 85-98, September.
    3. HansK. Hvide, 2009. "The Quality of Entrepreneurs," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(539), pages 1010-1035, July.
    4. Blanchflower, David G., 2000. "Self-employment in OECD countries," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(5), pages 471-505, September.
    5. Israel Kirzner, 1999. "Creativity and/or Alertness: A Reconsideration of the Schumpeterian Entrepreneur," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 11(1), pages 5-17, January.
    6. Train,Kenneth E., 2009. "Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521766555, September.
    7. Blanchflower, David G & Oswald, Andrew J, 1998. "What Makes an Entrepreneur?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(1), pages 26-60, January.
    8. Poschke, Markus, 2013. "Who becomes an entrepreneur? Labor market prospects and occupational choice," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 693-710.
    9. Israel M. Kirzner, 1997. "Entrepreneurial Discovery and the Competitive Market Process: An Austrian Approach," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(1), pages 60-85, March.
    10. Philippe Aghion & Jean Tirole, 1994. "The Management of Innovation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(4), pages 1185-1209.
    11. Marco Caliendo & Frank Fossen & Alexander Kritikos, 2009. "Risk attitudes of nascent entrepreneurs–new evidence from an experimentally validated survey," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 153-167, February.
    12. Kirzner, Israel M, 1999. "Creativity and/or Alertness: A Reconsideration of the Schumpeterian Entrepreneur," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 11(1-2), pages 5-17.
    13. Kevin M. Murphy & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1991. "The Allocation of Talent: Implications for Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(2), pages 503-530.
    14. Parker,Simon C., 2009. "The Economics of Entrepreneurship," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521728355, March.
    15. Evan J. Douglas & Dean A. Shepherd, 2002. "Self-Employment as a Career Choice: Attitudes, Entrepreneurial Intentions, and Utility Maximization," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 26(3), pages 81-90, April.
    16. Robert E. Lucas Jr., 1978. "On the Size Distribution of Business Firms," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 9(2), pages 508-523, Autumn.
    17. Kihlstrom, Richard E & Laffont, Jean-Jacques, 1979. "A General Equilibrium Entrepreneurial Theory of Firm Formation Based on Risk Aversion," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(4), pages 719-748, August.
    18. Silva, Olmo, 2007. "The Jack-of-All-Trades entrepreneur: Innate talent or acquired skill?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 118-123, November.
    19. Douglas, Evan J. & Shepherd, Dean A., 2000. "Entrepreneurship as a utility maximizing response," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 231-251, May.
    20. Sendhil Mullainathan & Marianne Bertrand, 2001. "Do People Mean What They Say? Implications for Subjective Survey Data," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(2), pages 67-72, May.
    21. Justin Van Der Sluis & Mirjam Van Praag & Wim Vijverberg, 2008. "Education And Entrepreneurship Selection And Performance: A Review Of The Empirical Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(5), pages 795-841, December.
    22. Parker,Simon C., 2009. "The Economics of Entrepreneurship," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521899604, March.
    23. Block, Zenas & Ornati, Oscar A., 1987. "Compensating corporate venture managers," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 41-51.
    24. Parker,Simon C., 2006. "The Economics of Self-Employment and Entrepreneurship," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521030632, October.
    25. Bostjan Antoncic, 2003. "Risk Taking In Intrapreneurship: Translating The Individual Level Risk Aversion Into The Organizational Risk Taking," Journal of Enterprising Culture (JEC), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 11(01), pages 1-23.
    26. Pia Arenius & Maria Minniti, 2005. "Perceptual Variables and Nascent Entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 233-247, February.
    27. Anton, James J & Yao, Dennis A, 1995. "Start-ups, Spin-offs, and Internal Projects," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 11(2), pages 362-378, October.
    28. Elke U. Weber & Richard A. Milliman, 1997. "Perceived Risk Attitudes: Relating Risk Perception to Risky Choice," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(2), pages 123-144, February.
    29. Ekelund, Jesper & Johansson, Edvard & Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta & Lichtermann, Dirk, 2005. "Self-employment and risk aversion--evidence from psychological test data," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(5), pages 649-659, October.
    30. Parker, Simon C., 2011. "Intrapreneurship or entrepreneurship?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 19-34, January.
    31. Karina Skovvang Christensen, 2004. "A classification of the corporate entrepreneurship umbrella: labels and perspectives," International Journal of Management and Enterprise Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 1(4), pages 301-315.
    32. Dan Lovallo & Colin Camerer, 1999. "Overconfidence and Excess Entry: An Experimental Approach," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(1), pages 306-318, March.
    33. C. M. Van Praag & J. S. Cramer, 2001. "The Roots of Entrepreneurship and Labour Demand: Individual Ability and Low Risk Aversion," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 68(269), pages 45-62, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Christine Blanka, 2019. "An individual-level perspective on intrapreneurship: a review and ways forward," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 13(5), pages 919-961, November.
    2. Slade Shantz, Angelique & Kistruck, Geoffrey & Zietsma, Charlene, 2018. "The opportunity not taken: The occupational identity of entrepreneurs in contexts of poverty," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 416-437.
    3. Miguel A. Hernandez, 2019. "Unveiling International New Ventures’ Success: Employee’s Entrepreneurial Behavior," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-32, August.
    4. Takanori Adachi & Takanori Hisada, 2017. "Gender differences in entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship: an empirical analysis," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 447-486, March.
    5. Vera Rocha & Anabela Carneiro & Celeste Amorim Varum, 2013. "Entrepreneurship Dynamics: Entry Routes, Business-Owner's Persistence and Exit Modes," CEF.UP Working Papers 1310, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    6. Vera Rocha & Anabela Carneiro & Celeste Varum, 2015. "Entry and exit dynamics of nascent business owners," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 63-84, June.
    7. Erik Stam, 2013. "Knowledge and entrepreneurial employees: a country-level analysis," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 41(4), pages 887-898, December.
    8. Blanka, Christine & Krumay, Barbara & Rueckel, David, 2022. "The interplay of digital transformation and employee competency: A design science approach," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    9. Claudia Álvarez & David Urbano & José Amorós, 2014. "GEM research: achievements and challenges," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 445-465, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nadia Simoes & Nuno Crespo & Sandrina B. Moreira, 2016. "Individual Determinants Of Self-Employment Entry: What Do We Really Know?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 783-806, September.
    2. Sari Pekkala Kerr & William R. Kerr & Tina Xu, 2017. "Personality Traits of Entrepreneurs: A Review of Recent Literature," NBER Working Papers 24097, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Zara Daghbashyan & Björn Hårsman, 2014. "University choice and entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(4), pages 729-746, April.
    4. Alina Sorgner & Michael Fritsch, 2013. "Occupational Choice and Self-Employment: Are They Related?," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 533, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    5. Estrin, Saul & Mickiewicz, Tomasz & Stephan, Ute, 2016. "Human capital in social and commercial entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 449-467.
    6. Vivarelli, Marco, 2012. "Drivers of entrepreneurship and post-entry performance : microeconomic evidence from advanced and developing countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6245, The World Bank.
    7. Vivarelli, Marco, 2012. "Entrepreneurship in Advanced and Developing Countries: A Microeconomic Perspective," IZA Discussion Papers 6513, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. McCann, Brian T. & Folta, Timothy B., 2012. "Entrepreneurial entry thresholds," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 84(3), pages 782-800.
    9. Erik Stam & Roy Thurik & Peter van der Zwan, 2010. "Entrepreneurial exit in real and imagined markets," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 19(4), pages 1109-1139, August.
    10. Luca David Opromolla & Michele Dell'Era, 2018. "A General Equilibrium Theory of Occupational Choice under Optimistic Beliefs about Entrepreneurial Ability," Working Papers w201822, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.
    11. Michael Fritsch & Alina Rusakova, 2010. "Personality Traits, Self-Employment, and Professions," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 343, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    12. Fairlie, Robert W. & Holleran, William, 2012. "Entrepreneurship training, risk aversion and other personality traits: Evidence from a random experiment," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 366-378.
    13. Peter van der Zwan & Ingrid Verheul & Roy Thurik & Isabel Grilo, 2009. "Entrepreneurial Progress: Climbing the Entrepreneurial Ladder in Europe and the US," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 09-070/3, Tinbergen Institute, revised 17 Mar 2010.
    14. Daniel Lechmann & Claus Schnabel, 2014. "Are the self-employed really jacks-of-all-trades? Testing the assumptions and implications of Lazear’s theory of entrepreneurship with German data," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 59-76, January.
    15. Ferrante, Francesco & Federici, Daniela & Parisi, Valentino, 2017. "University Students and Entrepreneurship. Some insights from a population-based survey," MPRA Paper 76980, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Marco Vivarelli, 2013. "Is entrepreneurship necessarily good? Microeconomic evidence from developed and developing countries," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 22(6), pages 1453-1495, December.
    17. Enrico Santarelli & Marco Vivarelli, 2007. "Entrepreneurship and the process of firms’ entry, survival and growth," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 16(3), pages 455-488, June.
    18. Román, Concepción & Congregado, Emilio & Millán, José María, 2013. "Start-up incentives: Entrepreneurship policy or active labour market programme?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 151-175.
    19. Daghbashyan, Zara & Hårsman, Björn, 2012. "Entrepreneurship and Arts Related Education," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 295, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    20. Traikova, Diana, 2013. "Determinants of non-farm entrepreneurial intentions in a transitional context: Evidence from rural Bulgaria," Studies on the Agricultural and Food Sector in Transition Economies, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), volume 72, number 72.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Intrapreneurship; Entrepreneurship; Occupational choice theory; GEM; J62; J31; J24; L26;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:sbusec:v:40:y:2013:i:1:p:27-39. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.