Painting inside the lines : The intrapreneurial dilemma

By focusing on the contradiction between stability and change, this thesis researched what factors impact intrapreneurship and how innovative organizations promote intrapreneurial activities. The aim is to gain an understanding of how innovative organizations foster intrapreneurship. The thesis is of a qualitative research design with an abductive approach. Data is collected in the form of nine semi-structured interviews with managers from different roles and industries. The interviewed managers were selected on the basis of two predetermined requirements. First, they represented companies identified as innovative and intrapreneurial by their respective organizational and financial structures, with business strategies focused on innovation. Second, the interviewees were identified as managers actively involved in managing strategic initiatives and intrapreneurial activities. The empirical findings confirmed that the relationship between large organizations and intrapreneurship is a difficult balancing act. This thesis provides findings that the corporate climate, organizational support, rewards and risk as well as intrapreneurial characteristics all impact intrapreneurial efforts. Ultimately, there is a need for organizations to balance organizational and intrapreneurial characteristics in order to foster innovation and solve the intrapreneurial dilemma. Consequently, the findings contribute valuable insight to the scattered field of intrapreneurship.