Intrapreneurs, high performers, or hybrid stars?:How individual entrepreneurial orientation affects employee performance

Recently, scholars have extended the concept of entrepreneurial orientation to the individual level. Yet, how individual entrepreneurial orientation (IEO) contributes to employee performance is not well understood. Building on role theory, we develop a novel typology of employee performance that distinguishes between employee behavior aimed at achieving in-role performance and employee engagement in intrapreneurial activities. To test how IEO affects the different performance prototypes of this typology, we collected survey and archival data on IEO, entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE), employee in-role performance, and engagement in intrapreneurship in a Dutch subsidiary of an international consultancy firm. Our results show that IEO is positively associated with in-role performance and intrapreneurship. ESE is also positively associated with in-role performance and intrapreneurship, albeit indirectly via IEO. These results mark an initial step in unraveling the impact of IEO on employee and firm performance, as well as why different outcomes occur as a result of IEO.</p

Heroes of diffusion: Making user innovations widely available

User innovations are often valuable to other people, but fail to diffuse because users lack incentives to do a dissemination effort. Past research recognized that users sometimes spur diffusion themselves, and that producers may search for and commercialize user innovations. In this study we identify a third type of actor who fills the void between initial solution and broad dissemination - without being a potential user or commercial diffuser himself. We document a case study at an academic hospital where workers created and institutionalized a system to support and disseminate user innovations developed by nurses. They proactively created a network with makerspace facilities, without being asked or instructed to do so. These workers fulfilled a disseminator role: they continued to develop user innovations to make adoption easy, explored commercial pathways, mobilized peer demand, and created favorable project conditions. Interestingly, the diffusion system was institutionalized by job crafting, securing budgets, embedding diffusion activities in the organization chart, and developing strategic relationships. Disseminators were motivated by self-actualization, enjoyment, reputation advancement, and altruism towards the nursing community; they strived to become ‘heroes of diffusion’. We conclude that a disseminator role in-between user innovators, and peer adopters and commercial producers, represents an alternative mechanism for user innovations to spread widely, and opens opportunities for new research

How to bridge the nurse innovation-diffusion gap?: An in-depth case study of Create4Care

Introduction: Nurses frequently innovate in response to operational failures, regulations, procedures, and/or other workflow barriers that prevent them from delivering high-quality patient care. Unfortunately, most nurse innovations do not diffuse to a broader audience, depriving other nurses from taking advantage of solutions that have already been developed elsewhere. This under-diffusion is problematic from a societal and welfare point of view. The goal of this paper is to understand how diffusion shortage of nurse innovations can be reduced. Methods: We develop a qualitative case study of a medical makerspace at the largest academic hospital in the Netherlands. This medical makerspace reported unusually high rates of nurse innovation diffusion. Our data collection includes on-site observations, archival data, secondary data, and fifteen in-depth interviews with key informants. Qualitative coding procedures and a combination of deductive and inductive reasoning are used to analyze the data. Results: Our data show that personal, organizational, regulatory, and market barriers prevent nurses from further developing and diffusion their innovations in an anticipatory manner. That is, because nurses expect that transforming an initial solution into an innovation that can be shared with others will be too time consuming and difficult they do not proceed with the further development. The medical makerspace that we investigated adequately addresses this problem by developing an innovation ecosystem that largely takes over the innovation and diffusion process. Discussion: We provide a concrete example of how a medical makerspace, and innovation support systems in a broader sense, can be designed to more adequately address the nurse innovation-diffusion gap. The two main elements of the practical solution that we identified are: (1) Support systems should facilitate that others may lead the development and diffusion of innovations and (2) The support system should promote that actors integrate their functional specializations within an innovation ecosystem. We make two theoretical contributions. First, we contribute to understanding barriers in the nurse innovation-diffusion process from a psychological point. Second, we identified that an ecosystem perspective is beneficial to develop innovation support systems in which diffusion occurs more often

Innovative behaviour, trust and perceived workplace performance

Building on theories of social exchange, enactment, and trust, we provide a theorization of innovative work behaviour at the individual (IB) and team (IBT) levels and explain how desirable performance returns occur for individuals and teams. We further propose that horizontal (between team members) and vertical (between teams and their supervisor) team trust moderate the relationship between IBT and team performance. The results based on surveys conducted at two points in time in a large insurance company in the Netherlands show that employees’ IB is positively associated with perceived workplace performance at the individual and team levels and that the effects vary based on the forms of trust at play. Our findings offer important new knowledge about the consequences of entrepreneurship and innovation in the workplace and the significant role that trust plays in enabling such behaviour to promote perceived workplace performance, particularly in the vital financial services sector

How to bridge the nurse innovation–diffusion gap? An in-depth case study of Create4Care

IntroductionNurses frequently innovate in response to operational failures, regulations, procedures, and/or other workflow barriers that prevent them from delivering high-quality patient care. Unfortunately, most nurse innovations do not diffuse to a broader audience, depriving other nurses from taking advantage of solutions that have already been developed elsewhere. This under-diffusion is problematic from a societal and welfare point of view. The goal of this paper is to understand how diffusion shortage of nurse innovations can be reduced.MethodsWe develop a qualitative case study of a medical makerspace at the largest academic hospital in the Netherlands. This medical makerspace reported unusually high rates of nurse innovation diffusion. Our data collection includes on-site observations, archival data, secondary data, and fifteen in-depth interviews with key informants. Qualitative coding procedures and a combination of deductive and inductive reasoning are used to analyze the data.ResultsOur data show that personal, organizational, regulatory, and market barriers prevent nurses from further developing and diffusion their innovations in an anticipatory manner. That is, because nurses expect that transforming an initial solution into an innovation that can be shared with others will be too time consuming and difficult they do not proceed with the further development. The medical makerspace that we investigated adequately addresses this problem by developing an innovation ecosystem that largely takes over the innovation and diffusion process.DiscussionWe provide a concrete example of how a medical makerspace, and innovation support systems in a broader sense, can be designed to more adequately address the nurse innovation-diffusion gap. The two main elements of the practical solution that we identified are: (1) Support systems should facilitate that others may lead the development and diffusion of innovations and (2) The support system should promote that actors integrate their functional specializations within an innovation ecosystem. We make two theoretical contributions. First, we contribute to understanding barriers in the nurse innovation-diffusion process from a psychological point. Second, we identified that an ecosystem perspective is beneficial to develop innovation support systems in which diffusion occurs more often

Entrepreneurial orientation and the business performance of SMEs: a quantitative study from the Netherlands

Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) is often mentioned as an antecedent of growth, competitive advantage and superior performance, and prior empirical research has often shown a positive relationship between EO and performance appears to exist. However, an important question that remains unanswered is what effect EO might have on firm performance during periods of economic crisis, and the severe environmental turbulence that accompany such crises. This research is a first investigation towards the effects of EO on the performance of small and medium sized firms during the current global economic crisis. In this study we use the multidimensional model of EO and test a series of hypotheses pertaining to its performance effects using survey data gathered from 164 Dutch SMEs. The present research shows that proactive firm behavior positively contributes to SME performance during the economic crisis. We further show that innovative SMEs do perform better in turbulent environments, but those innovative SMEs should minimize the level of risk and should take action to avoid projects that are too risky

Ondernemende teams, visie en de invloed op teamprestaties

Ondernemend gedrag door werknemers is een belangrijke randvoorwaarde voor organisaties om in te kunnen spelen op veranderingen in een dynamische omgeving. Tot op heden levert onderzoek naar de prestaties van ondernemende werknemers echter verschillende resultaten op. In dit artikel beschrijven wij ons onderzoek naar ondernemend gedrag en teamprestaties. Binnen teams kunnen werknemers samenwerken en gebruikmaken van elkaars ondernemende competenties. Naast de toegevoegde waarde van ondernemend gedrag binnen teams, toont dit onderzoek aan dat teams baat hebben bij een helder geformuleerde visie op organisatieniveau. Deze visie kan dienen als strategisch kader en zorgt ervoor dat proactieve teams ondernemende initiatieven ontplooien die in het belang zijn van de organisatie als geheel

Succesfactoren in het proces van bedrijfsopvolging binnen Nederlandse familiebedrijven

Bedrijfsopvolging binnen familiebedrijven is een emotioneel geladen en complex proces. De tevredenheid van stakeholders over dit proces is cruciaal voor de continuïteit van het familiebedrijf en daarom is het belangrijk dat de ondernemer de juiste omstandigheden schept om het stokje aan de volgende generatie over te dragen. In deze studie doen we verslag van een onderzoek naar succesfactoren tijdens het proces van bedrijfsopvolging en geven we, op basis van een integraal model voor bedrijfsopvolging, adviseurs inzicht in factoren die een signiIcante bijdrage leveren aan de tevredenheid en het verloop van het opvolgingsproces

Increasing quantity without compromising quality: How managerial framing affects intrapreneurship

Individual-level opportunity recognition processes are vital to corporate entrepreneurship. However, little is known regarding how managerial communication impacts the effectiveness of idea suggestion systems in stimulating individuals’ participation in intrapreneurial ideation. Integrating self-determination theory, creativity, and framing research, we theorize how different ways of inviting employees to submit proposals (opt-out/opt-in registration; provision of examples) affect the number and quality of submitted ideas. Our multi-method study (field experiment, vignette experiment, interviews) shows that (i) opt-out increases employee participation without reducing idea quality and (ii) the provision of examples enhances the usefulness of ideas but decreases novelty and the number of submissions

ENTREPRENEURIAL ORIENTATION AND DIGITALIZATION IN THE FINANCIAL SERVICE INDUSTRY: A CONTINGENCY APPROACH

Financial service firms, and banks in particular, are faced with a shift from traditional, interpersonal forms of service to online services. Digital technologies are more and more becoming today’s standard and challenge traditional business models in the banking sector. Building on the concept of Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO), this study of banks in Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein aims at developing insights that explain how banks can use the tactics and strategies associated with EO to achieve superior performance in the digitalization age. Results from a survey in 102 banks show that: 1) banks that display high levels of EO report a higher level of performance, and 2) the relationship between strategic vision on digitalization and performance is moderated by EO. These results indicate that the sheer level of digitalization of a bank does not affect profitability. Instead, banks should develop a clear vision on digitalization that is characterized by innovation, being ahead of the competition, and a willingness to take risks