Corporate Entrepreneurship: Exploring the role of leaders¿ supervision by means of employee creativity and innovation.

Abstract

Corporate entrepreneurship (CE) is an institutionalised process, where a broad range of employees and managers act as entrepreneurs in the innovation process. CE needs to be nurtured and managed as a strategic, deliberate act. Isolated “skunkworks” type projects traditionally followed by large organisations are no longer the primary option in the creation of new businesses. There is a continuous need for research to identify the factors that contribute to the development and growth of entrepreneurial ventures. Previous research supports the notion that manager’s supervision has a significant impact on individual creative ability, and employees who reported high-quality relationships with their supervisors were more likely to generate creative ideas. Existing literature on CE shows a strong association between employee creative ability and employees engagement with entrepreneurial activities. This research study explores the role of leader supervision in relation to corporate entrepreneurship with regards to employee creativity and innovation. This research study is performed at NETS Holding A/S, a major financial organisation in the Nordic region. Due to the accelerating rate of technological changes, NETS Holding A/S wants to cultivate CE to achieve competitive advantage and further improve their business. A mixed method approach is employed involving audit questionnaire to compile quantitative data on innovative activity and an interview to gather qualitative data to identify some critical insights on the CE process. Findings from the research indicate organisation structure without any barriers and motivating internal culture provide entrepreneurial employees with the necessary flexibility and motivation to use their entrepreneurial skills as opposed to the senior management supervision approach. Supportive supervision is far from a CE panacea; it is the culture of the organisation which promotes proliferates of entrepreneurial activities. These findings support the notion that environmental dynamism and heterogeneity (multiplicity and complexity of environmental components) intensify corporate entrepreneurship. Further research can build upon the current study to identify how managers can rejuvenate the internal culture of the organisation to improve CE.