Kim-Yin Chan

Who Wants to Be an Intrapreneur? Relations between Employees’ Entrepreneurial, Professional, and Leadership Career Motivations and Intrapreneurial Motivation in Organizations

This paper reports an empirical study conducted to examine the relationship between employees’ Entrepreneurial, Professional, and Leadership (EPL) career motivations and their intrapreneurial motivation. Using data collected from 425 working adults in the research/innovation and healthcare settings, we develop a self-report measure of employee intrapreneurial motivation. We also adapt an existing self-report measure of E, P, and L career motivations (previously developed and used with university students) for use with working adult organizational employees. Confirmatory factor analysis indicate that E, P, and L motivations and intrapreneurial motivation can be measured independently and reliably, while regression analyses show that the employees’ E, P, and L motivations all contribute to explaining variance in their intrapreneurial motivation. Individuals with high E, P, and L motivational profiles are also found to have the highest intrapreneurial motivation scores, while those low on E, P, and L motivations have the least intrapreneurial motivation. Our findings suggest that the potential for intrapreneurship is not unique to only entrepreneurial employees. Instead, one can find intrapreneurs among employees with strong leadership and professional motivations as well. We discuss the findings in the context of generating more research to address the challenges of talent management in the 21st century knowledge economies where there is greater career mobility and boundarylessness in the workforce.

Impact of Entrepreneurship Training on Entrepreneurial Efficacy and Alertness among Adolescent Youth

Our study focuses on the impact of systematic entrepreneurship training comprising both active and passive learning activities on entrepreneurial alertness and efficacy among adolescent youth. Reports from a two-wave online survey among 328 students from five secondary schools (aged 13-16 years; 34.8% male and 65.2% female) reveal that those who went through entrepreneurship training (treatment group, N=142) had significantly higher entrepreneurial alertness and efficacy levels compared to those who did not go through training (control group, N=186). We also find that even with gender effects accounted for, the higher entrepreneurial alertness and efficacy levels in the treatment group are due in part to both passive and active/hands-on elements of the program. Our study offers direct evidence that conducting entrepreneurship training programs among secondary school students could be an effective means to enhance entrepreneurial competencies among the youth. Specifically, our findings highlight the value of entrepreneurial training in improving age-appropriate competencies of entrepreneurial alertness and efficacy.