Intrapreneurship is known as the practice of a corporate management style that integrates risk-taking and innovation approaches, as well as the reward and motivational techniques, that are more traditionally thought of as being the province of entrepreneurship.
"[2] In 1992, The American Heritage Dictionary acknowledged the popular use of a new word, intrapreneur, to mean "A person within a large corporation who takes direct responsibility for turning an idea into a profitable finished product through assertive risk-taking and innovation".
[5] Later Norman Macrae, who read the white paper, credited the term to Gifford Pinchot III in the April 17, 1982 issue of The Economist.
[6] The first formal academic case study of corporate entrepreneurship or intrapreneurship was published in June 1982, as a Master's in Management thesis, by Howard Edward Haller, on the intrapreneurial creation of PR1ME Leasing within PR1ME Computer Inc. (from 1977 to 1981).
This academic research was later published as a case study by VDM Verlag as Intrapreneurship Success: A Prime Example.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language included the term 'intrapreneur' in its 3rd 1992 Edition,[7] with Pinchot as the originator of the concept.
The term "intrapreneurship" was used in the popular media first in February 1985 by TIME magazine article "Here Come the Intrapreneurs"[8] and then the same year in another major popular publication was in a quote by Steve Jobs, Apple Computer's Chairman, in an interview in the September 1985 Newsweek article,[9] which quotes him as saying, "The Macintosh team was what is commonly known as intrapreneurship; only a few years before the term was coined — a group of people going, in essence, back to the garage, but in a large company."
Professor Alain Ndedi Master research was rated among the best books of all times in the field of intrapreneurship by BookAutority (https://bookauthority.org/books/best-intrapreneurship-books).
Intrapreneurship 2.0 shifts the focus from corporate-centric innovation to employee-driven self development, emphasizing holistic career growth and work-life balance.
This employee-focused framework resonates deeply with the aspirations of a new-age workforce, addressing their desire for fulfillment and professional alignment while contributing to organizational success.
Capturing a little of the dynamic nature of entrepreneurial management (trying things until successful, learning from failures, attempting to conserve resources, etc.)
[15]: 12 Many, including George Kliavkoff (President MGM), believe a strong culture of intrapreneurs comes from three key concepts being: top-down support for intrapreneurship (an executive mandate), a creative structure, and patient capital.
[16] The management of the firm is eventually responsible for providing the conditions that facilitate individual intrapreneurial attitude with the aim of opening the employee's minds.
Assuming other prerequisites for intrepreneurial activity are in place, access to corporate resources and other employees allow intrepreneurs to convert opportunities into high-potential innovations.
[18] One of the most well-known examples of intrapreneurship is the "Skunk Works Archived 4 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine" group at Lockheed Martin.
Siemens-Nixdorf took a different approach, designing a 2-year corporate program to turn 300 managers into intrapreneurs, skilled in spotting new business opportunities with notable potential.
[20] Kanter and Richardson's[21] case study research "Engines of Progress" describes how Ohio-Bell encouraged intrapreneurial behaviour through the development of a system of innovation called "Enter-Prize".
The three ideas presented included virtual reality videoconferencing, disability hiring programs, and digital media productivity suite.
[22] Intrapreneurship through creativity by Wipro in India, a small vegetable company that ended up being a software outsourcing powerhouse.
Many companies struggle with applying the concept of intrapreneurship into their daily routines due to high levels of defined tasks and schedules that deter opportunities for serendipity and for new ideas to be recognised.
[23] Issues around a highly defined schedule and lack of necessary time and space for idea creation are also highlighted in an article by Sushain Pandit (2015).
[27] According to the framework, there is a tendency in large firms to favour familiar and mature technologies, and also search for new ideas that are similar to existing solutions.
Jones and Butler (1992) stated that due to organisational size, age and complex functions, entrepreneurship and management are often separated.
In practical terms, this implies that organisations can influence their Intrapreneurial Orientation through selection at recruitment and through ongoing training and development.
This pragmatic approach relies on timely interventions to generate innovative ideas, rather than a company wide cultural change requiring organisational re-design.
Another approach to bridging the gap between practitioners and academia is the model proposed by Anthony et al.[42] The Minimum Viable Innovation System (MVIS) is an attempt to take the essence of academic models and demonstrate how organisations can implement a MVIS within 90 days Koch (2014) claims that intrapreneurs are the "secret weapon" of the business world.