Title: Entrepreneurial spirit and corporate entrepreneurship in large companies

Authors: Alain Fayolle, Olivier Basso

Addresses: Entrepreneurship Research Centre, EM Lyon, 23 avenue Guy de Collongue, 69134, Ecully cedex, France. ' Singleton Institute, Avenue Vandendriessche, 3, B-1150 Brussels, Belgium

Abstract: The themes of corporate entrepreneurship can be approached from many angles: they call for an examination, on the one hand, of the conditions in which new activities are undertaken (concept, markets, finance…), and of the entrepreneur|s profile, and on the other hand, of the company|s ability to create and welcome innovation as guided by the change agents (leadership). Facing this diversity, our article aims to categorise firm|s strategies engaged in entrepreneurial behaviours. After having recalled the characteristics of entrepreneurship considered from an individual perspective, we describe corporate entrepreneurship in its different forms, distinguishing its internal facets (revitalisation, sharing innovative approaches, developing new activities) and its external ones (corporate venture capital). Finally, in our last section, we propose a new framework that helps to recognise different types of entrepreneurial companies and encompasses the various initiatives that resort to corporate entrepreneurship.

Keywords: corporate entrepreneurship; entrepreneurial firms; large companies; collective behaviour; new business ventures; innovativeness; entrepreneurial spirit; innovation; change agents; leadership; internal facets; revitalisation; innovative approaches; new activities; external factors; corporate venture capital; small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; entrepreneurs; intrapreneurship; intrapreneuriality; intrapreneurs.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2010.033570

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2010 Vol.10 No.3, pp.307 - 323

Published online: 06 Jun 2010 *

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