Corporate Entrepreneurship in Bulgarian Holding Companies

The paper highlights the importance of entrepreneurial initiatives of large companies that enables them to meet the challenges of the dynamic external environment and the fierce competition, as well as to take the emerging opportunities. It analyses the characteristics of the today’s entrepreneurial organisations and the role of intrapreneurship to their successful development. The paper presents the factors influencing the corporate entrepreneurship, the main barriers in front of it and its most common appearances. The author reveals the specific features of the holding companies as research objects, as well as the advantages and the problems of the Bulgarian holding structures. The paper examines the preconditions and obstacles to corporate entrepreneurship in the Bulgarian holding companies. The author analyses how factors as external environment, company strategy, organisational structure, organisational culture, policy towards the staff and qualities of managers and employees influence the entrepreneurial orientation of these companies. The paper is based on a multiannual questionnaire survey of the Institute for Entrepreneurship Development at the University of National and World Economy, as well as on author’s own investigations. A focus is put on a survey conducted in 2011 which covered 30 holding companies.