Career path changer: the case of public and private sector entrepreneurial employee intentions

Abstract

Purpose This paper seeks to identify the organisational context and the combinations of antecedent conditions needed to change employee behaviour in public and private sectors towards being an entrepreneurial employee/“intrapreneur”. Design/methodology/approach The framework adopted assumed that for employees from both public and private sectors a range of factors contributes to a configurational effect. These factors—that can shift their behaviour towards being or becoming an intrapreneur—are the novelty of entrepreneurship, opportunities for permanent learning, the possibility of creating value for others and personal motivation. Findings Four possible combinations of antecedent conditions that could lead to the expected outcome (being or becoming an entrepreneurial employee/intrapreneur) are consistent with the proposed model. Using a quantitative approach was appropriate for examining contrasting entrepreneurial intentions, specifically in identifying the profiles of the employees who might bring the company to the next level: information that could be useful to all managers. Research limitations/implications Due to the exploratory nature of the research, with descriptive statistics, the correlations focused solely on the respondents' demographical characteristics. Further comparative analysis should be conducted, therefore, between public and private sectors and with larger numbers of respondents. Originality/value To the best of our knowledge, the proposed study is novel as the first empirical integrative study using the fsQCA methodology to address the intrapreneurial phenomenon of employees from public and private organisations.

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