Identifying barriers to intrapreneurship: a systems theory approach

Intrapreneurship became a research topic of wide academic interest in recent times. Building upon previous work that focused on single aspects or influence factors that impact the success of intrapreneurial activities, this paper suggests a holistic systems theory-based approach to assess possible barriers of intrapreneurship in organizations. After an outline of previous work on intrapreneurship in general and possible related threads and risk specifically, an adapted sensitivity analysis method of Vester (2000) is applied to develop a draft model of interconnected influence factors for intrapreneurial activities in organizations. This conceptual model should serve as a basis for further empirical research on the subject and supports the understanding of interdependencies between variables in an organizational system. In accordance with findings from analyzing the literature, the application of the method to a single-case study suggests that possible barriers to intrapreneurship can be a lack of skills, creativity, knowledge or motivation of employees to act as intrapreneurs on the individual level; the organizational culture, its management, the provided working environment and a lack of agility and rule breaking tolerance on the organizational level as well as the current market situation. Future research could make use of this approach and empirically validate the results or extend them through comparative studies of successful and unsuccessful intrapreneurial activities. It could be further enhanced through semantic modelling to illustrate and capture the network of interdependencies.