Page - 227 - in Digital Entrepreneurship - Impact on Business and Society

1 Introduction PlayStation, iPod, Post-it® Notes, and Gmail are all products of intrapreneur- ship. Introduced by Pinchot in 1978, intrapreneurship has long been promoted to employees as away to capture the creativity, sense of purpose, and excitement of entrepreneurship, albeit withmore available resources and less risk (Corbett 2018; Pinchot and Pellman 1999). Intrapreneurs are not merely talented speakers and polished PowerPoint presenters. They are individuals capable of making quick prototypes, testing ideas with potential customers, learning what works and what does notwork, redesigning their products, testing themagain, andpushing through or around whatever barriers are in their way. They are self-motivated, proactive, and action-oriented employees who take responsibility for turning an idea into a profitable business reality for their employer. Digitalisation and digital transformation have opened new intrapreneurial pos- sibilities. Digital tools and technologies are transforming business strategies and processes, firm capabilities, and key interfirm and customer relationships. These changes are not exclusively relevant to organisations focussing on digital products and services; theyalso affect howfirms in traditional industriesdobusiness.Digital technologies are creating or changingmost jobs and future growth opportunities. Digitalisation even transforms creative industries likemusic and film. Fundamen- tally, digitalisation puts enormous pressure on companies and individuals to reflect on their current strategies and explore new business and career opportunities (Rachinger et al. 2018). This is the ‘new normal’. Intrapreneurs are as essential to corporate innovation as entrepreneurs are to start-ups, somost companiesneedmanymore intrapreneurs than theyused to in the more stable times of the past. A firm’s capacity to foster intrapreneurial talent significantly affects its ability to address the many opportunities and disruptions caused by the digital transformation. For that reason, nowadays, an understanding ofhowafirmcancreate acorporate environmentwithinwhichdigital intrapreneurs can thrive is an essential leadership capacity. According to recent studies, although digital transformation offers organisations numerous opportunities to involve intrapreneurs in seizing the opportunitiesmade possible by digital technology, many of the platforms, designs, and tools that corporations use to encourage intrapreneurship are limited and ineffective (Reibenspiess et al. 2020). However, if managers can suitably locate digital intra- preneurs and accommodate their needs, organisations can functionmore effectively in a digitally transforming environment. This requires decision-makers to adopt entirely new ways of thinking, leading, and managing rather than simply approaching new processes with the same oldmindset. This chapter discusses the importance of digital intrapreneurs and explores the ways of identifying, surfacing, and empowering them within established organisations. 234 G. Pinchot III andM. Soltanifar