Organisational Conditions for Corporate Entrepreneurship in Dutch Organisations

Corporate entrepreneurship is a topic of attraction for many managers in corporate enterprises. In the early 1980s, several researchers discovered the importance of entrepreneurship and its role in organisational renewal, innovation, risk taking and creation of new businesses. Corporate entrepreneurship became a subject of interest because of its beneficial effect on revitalisation and performance of the firms. Studies on this topic focused mainly on the organisational factors like freedom, organisational boundaries and management support which influence intrapreneurship. In the late 1990s, the popularity of this subject rose. This article focuses on the relationship between organisational characteristics and present conditions for corporate entrepreneurship in Dutch organisations. A questionnaire administered in Dutch organisations received 711 responses. In this article, the analyses of the questionnaire are presented via an exploratory factor analysis and a subsequent confirmation analysis. Four factors/scales were identified: centralisation (αlpha = 0.75), cooperation between colleagues (αlpha = 0.76), cooperation between departments (αlpha = 0.77) and formalisation (αlpha = 0.75). These factors are connected with the perception of corporate entrepreneurship. The respondents were asked about the level at which they found themselves entrepreneurial. The conditions and the perceptions taken together give a fair overview of the corporate spirit of an organisation.