Characteristics of Intrapreneurs in Scale-Intensive Service Firms
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Date
2014Metadata
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Original version
Hydle, K. M., Aas, T. H., & Breunig, K. J. (2014). Characteristics of intrapreneurs in scale-intensive service Firms. Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management, and Innovation, 10(2) http://dx.doi.org/10.7341/20141024Abstract
This empirical paper explores the work of employees in charge of service innovation
when firms develop and launch new scale-intensive services by addressing two research
questions: i) How do employees responsible for service innovation work? and
ii) what are the related managerial implications when developing and launching new
scale-intensive services? To this end, 21 qualitative, in-depth interviews were conducted
with employees in five large scale-intensive service firms. The findings suggest
that the involvement of internal professionals is an asset when new scale-intensive
services are developed, and that internal professionals act as intrapreneurs when
they are involved in the development of radically new scale-intensive services. This
paper integrates understanding from the innovation management literature with
knowledge of professionals from extant literature on professional service firms since
we find that professionals in scale-intensive firms act as intrapreneurs. Thus, this paper
extends the theory on determinants of innovation in scale-intensive service firms,
blending insights from both findings and theory.