State-of-the-Art Analysis of Intrapreneurship: A Review of the Theoretical Construct and Its Bibliometrics

Abstract

The complexity of today’s business dynamics in terms of competition, high consumer standards and shorter product life cycles demand that companies look for alternative ways to ensure their survival and growth (Baruah and Ward 2014; Deprez et al. 2018; Galván et al. 2018a; Kuratko et al. 2017; Rubio 2015), so organizations have had to transform themselves to secure a favorable position in their respective industries (Galván et al. 2019). Against this backdrop, some authors recognize that a genuine means to ensure economic development and, specifically, organizational development, is corporate entrepreneurship (e.g., Galván and Sánchez 2018; Turró et al. 2014), also known as intrapreneurship, which can be broadly defined as entrepreneurship that arises within an established organization (Ahmed and Amjad 2013). Intrapreneurship has been attributed to performance outcomes’ (Kearney et al. 2013), revitalization (Baruah and Ward 2014; Deprez et al. 2018), improved competitive capabilities, satisfaction, improved affective commitment of those involved (Rutherford and Holt 2007), increased innovative capacity of the firm (Bierwerth et al. 2015) and other issues, such as increased productivity and a business stance of constant anticipation of environmental changes (Zahra 1991). However, some critical aspects that condition its study have been recognized. One of these relates to the limited exploration of the domains of this phenomenon, which is manifested in a scarce set of theoretical contributions that help the creation of knowledge in a field in which only extracts and pieces of theory are found (Galván et al. 2019). In addition to the above, one of the main reasons that guide the study of intrapreneurship is the awareness of the adoption of practices that allow companies to develop. By J. Risk Financial Manag. 2021, 14, 148. https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm14040148 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/jrfm J. Risk Financial Manag. 2021, 14, 148 2 of 16 studying the phenomenon of intrapreneurship, knowledge is provided that allows its understanding as a critical factor in the survival, success and improvement of competitive capabilities in companies (Audretsch et al. 2020), and also gives rise to discussion of the need for the valorization of the employee in the company and managerial, strategic and normative activities that support the innovative ideas of the workforce. This article aims to determine the current state of the art of the term “intrapreneurship” based on the analysis of its main exponents from the associated scientific publications that allow the development of a future research agenda. It addresses the research question: what is the current state of the art of the phenomenon of intrapreneurship and where should future research on the subject be directed? This research objective and question goes beyond the bibliometric analysis of the term and its variants, because it invites reflection on the need to contribute to the development and evolution of a general or substantive theory. The following sections encourage discussion on the role of intrapreneurship in the firm, and present a series of reflections on the evolution of intrapreneurship and the vision of intrapreneurship from the perspective of dynamic capabilities, in addition to the background of intrapreneurship, its most accepted concepts and the most representative models. Methodological aspects are addressed and later, a bibliometric analysis is undertaken to describe the evolution of the study of intrapreneurship in terms of number of publications, most representative journals, associated keywords, main authors and countries in which the research has been carried out. Finally, the importance of intrapreneurship is discussed, its implications for business performance, and the need for further research in this field of management sciences for which future lines of research are proposed.