Seite - 228 - in Digital Entrepreneurship - Impact on Business and Society

2 TheRelevance of Intrapreneurship toDigital Business This section defines intrapreneurship and digital intrapreneurship, describes intra- preneurial roles and behaviour, elaborates on the growth of digital transformation, and provides an overview of the subject. 2.1 Defining Intrapreneurship Definitions of intrapreneurship abound, each emphasising a different aspect of the term (e.g. Zahra et al. 2016). For example, intrapreneurship has been used to describe the following: 1. The entrepreneurial initiatives of a firm, viewing the firm as a whole as an individual actor 2. Theprocessesand structures formanaging intrapreneurswithin anorganisation 3. The activities and behaviours of intrapreneurs, their teams, and their sponsors. In this chapter, todistinguishbetween these threeaspectsof intrapreneurship,we shall use the term intrapreneurship to refer to (a) the intrapreneurial activities of a firmas awhole and (b) themethods it uses to support andguide intrapreneurs.We use intrapreneuring todiscuss theactivitiesandbehaviourofan intrapreneurandan intrapreneurial team as they work on developing and implementing innovative solutions.Wewill also use intrapreneurship as a general term to refer to all three abovementioned aspects. Academic literature on intrapreneurship embraces innovative initiatives coming fromemployeeswhen the initiatives come as responses to requests and challenges from afirm’s leadership andwhen innovations alignwith its strategy. Studies also recognise initiatives that began as bottom-up ideas and eventually received man- agement approval. According to Pinchot (1985): ‘[Intrapreneurs are] any of the ‘dreamers that do’. Thosewho take hands-on responsibility for creatingan innovationof anykindwithinanorganization.The intrapreneurmayormay notbe thecreatoror inventorbut is always thedreamerwhofiguresouthowto turnan idea into a profitable reality’ (p. ix). Pinchot later defines one particular kind of intrapreneurs (1987): the ‘in-house entrepreneurs, those dreamerswho can increase the speed and cost-effectiveness of technology transfer fromR&D to themarketplace’ (p. 14). Our definition of intrapreneurship is somewhat broader than general usage. Writing about intrapreneurs often focusses on the people within an existing organisation who develop innovative products or services provided to external customers. However, people can use their intrapreneurial spirit for many things other than newexternally focussed products and services, instead concentrating on developingbetterways tomake, improve, and sell products and services.Although Pinchot’s perspective includes both the intrapreneurial actors (i.e. intrapreneurial Digital Intrapreneurship: The Corporate Solution… 235