Intrapreneurship

Course goals

Learning objectives
This course provides students with a theoretically grounded and practice-oriented understanding of corporate entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship in established organisations. It focuses on how organisational systems and managerial interventions shape entrepreneurial behaviour inside firms, and how individuals can initiate and champion innovation within such contexts. The major course objectives include:

• Analysing how organisational structures, strategies, and cultures enable or constrain intrapreneurial behaviour within established firms;  
• Explaining how individual intrapreneurs recognise, develop, and champion new initiatives, and how these bottom-up efforts interact with organisational systems and managerial decisions;
• Evaluating managerial interventions and organisational design choices that foster or hinder corporate entrepreneurship, using relevant academic frameworks and mechanisms;
• Applying corporate entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship concepts to analyse and develop recommendations for organisational situations and cases.

Content

Entrepreneurship is usually associated with start-up activities by independent entrepreneurs. However, entrepreneurial activity can also take place within established organisations. Employees and managers may initiate and develop new products, services, processes, or ventures inside existing firms, thereby contributing to strategic renewal and innovation. Such entrepreneurial activity within organisations is commonly referred to as corporate entrepreneurship or intrapreneurship. Research and practice increasingly show that these initiatives do not emerge in isolation: they are shaped by organisational structures, leadership, incentives, and culture, as well as by the actions of individual intrapreneurs who champion ideas and mobilise support.
 
This course is addressed to students interested in understanding how corporate entrepreneurship can be fostered and managed in established organisations. It adopts an explicitly multilevel perspective that integrates organisational-level conditions (top-down design and managerial interventions) with individual-level behaviour (bottom-up initiative and championing). This perspective is used to analyse how entrepreneurial initiatives emerge, develop, and succeed or fail within corporate settings.
 
The course introduces core academic frameworks and contemporary research on corporate entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship, including topics such as organizational conditions for entrepreneurship, corporate venturing approaches, intrapreneurial behaviour, and the integration of individual initiatives with organisational systems. Special attention will be paid to the mechanisms through which organisational environments influence intrapreneurial action, and how individuals navigate and shape these environments.
The teaching approach combines conceptual input with structured discussion of articles and short cases in plenary sessions. Two in-class team case analyses allow students to apply course concepts to realistic corporate entrepreneurship situations.
 
Format
This course follows an experiential learning format. Experiential learning is the process of learning through experience and reflection. It therefore requires that the student takes on an active role. In this course, experiential learning is achieved primarily through structured in-class analysis and application. The main elements of the course are described in more detail below.

Interactive plenary sessions: This course is an interactive and participatory course that introduces key concepts and theories during plenary sessions with the full group. Sessions combine conceptual input with structured discussion of academic articles and short case-based examples. Active participation and discussion are stimulated to advance students’ knowledge and understanding. Students are expected to prepare sessions by reading articles in advance.

In-class team case analyses: Experiential learning is mainly achieved through two in-class team case analysis sessions. During these sessions, students work in teams to analyse a corporate entrepreneurship case and develop theory-informed recommendations within a limited time frame. These sessions emphasise applying course concepts to realistic organisational situations, collaborative problem-solving, and presenting and defending recommendations.

Assessment method
The assessment is based upon two different sub-parts:

• Individual written exam (50% of the final grade): the individual exam covers the core concepts, mechanisms, and frameworks discussed during the plenary sessions. The exam consists of open-ended questions and short case-based prompts that require students to explain and apply corporate entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship concepts.
• In-class team case analyses (50% of the final grade): students participate in two in-class team case sessions (each counting for 25% of the final grade). During these sessions, teams analyse a corporate entrepreneurship case and present theory-informed recommendations within a limited time frame. Assessment is based on the quality of analysis, the application of relevant academic frameworks, and the clarity and consistency of the proposed recommendations.

Team composition may vary across the two case sessions. By default, the grade for each case session is awarded at the team level.