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Corporate entrepreneurship: a test of external and internal influences on managers’ idea generation, risk taking, and proactiveness

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Abstract

Because upper managers have the responsibility to set the corporate entrepreneurship agenda, their entrepreneurial characteristics matter to a firm's successful implementation of corporate entrepreneurship. This study investigated influences on the idea creation, risk taking, and proactiveness perceptions of upper managers in a random sample of 105 Thai manufacturing firms. Results indicate that these managers' idea generation was influenced by the type of product produced, the size of the company, and the extent of firm support for individual entrepreneurship. Managerial risk taking was associated with firm size and extent of support for personal entrepreneurship. Managerial proactiveness as associated only with the scope of firms' competition, firm size, organizational entrepreneurial climate and support for personal entrepreneurship. Results suggest that firm context can influence the basis for corporate entrepreneurship.

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  1. Management Department, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, USA

    Terrence C. Sebora

  2. Media Expertise International, Bangkok, Thailand

    Titikorn Theerapatvong

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  1. Terrence C. Sebora
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Correspondence to Terrence C. Sebora.

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Sebora, T.C., Theerapatvong, T. Corporate entrepreneurship: a test of external and internal influences on managers’ idea generation, risk taking, and proactiveness. Int Entrep Manag J 6, 331–350 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-009-0108-5

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