Resourcing corporate entrepreneurial initiatives:a case study from Ghana

Abstract

Entrepreneurship within companies, known as corporate entrepreneurship (CE), has increasingly gained attention due to its ability to increase organisation competitiveness, growth, performance, profitability and learning. As interest in CE increases, researchers note that some aspects of the CE process require further exploration. One aspect of the CE process that continues to garner attention is the resourcing of CE initiatives. While the process of CE has been shown to revolve around the combination of resources, research on the resourcing of CE initiatives has often been fragmented and concentrated on resource availability whereas resourcing entails more than the acquisition of resources – it also includes the identification and configuration of resources. Consequently, this thesis qualitatively examines how resourcing occurs during the development of CE initiatives by drawing on ten companies in the manufacturing (FMCG) and services (financial) sectors in Ghana. The thesis presents three process models – two on the resourcing process; and one on resourcing and the speed of developing CE initiatives. Furthermore, the thesis presents a categorisation of CE based on resourcing and delineates stages of the CE process where different dimensions of resourcing are heightened. Again, the thesis highlights the external dimension in the development and resourcing of CE initiatives. Notably, the thesis argues that networks may matter more for reputation enhancing initiatives that have social impetus than for those with purely commercial or business interests. The thesis further suggests that, with regard to the speed of developing CE initiatives, different strategies may be appropriate for different stages of the CE process – less formalised CE processes may be appropriate at the initiation stage whereas more formalised CE processes may be useful post-initiation stage to facilitate integration, resourcing and speedy development of CE initiatives.