Keeping the Entrepreneurial Spirit Alive: A Challenge For Big Business?

On the morning of April 19, 2021, the IE Center for Families in Business and Coca-Cola European Partners announced the publication of “PROMOTING THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT OF TODAY’S TALENT.” The study’s primary objective is to understand which policies of labor organization and human resources management help create an environment that allows the entrepreneurial spirit of mid-level managers to flourish.

“At the IE Center for Families in Business, we interact with companies that share a common concern for making a lasting impact and taking care of the founder's legacy, generation after generation. Our desire to provide sound answers to this concern led us to carry out this study, which contains a scientifically rigorous exploration of the factors that affect the entrepreneurial spirit." – Carlos Mas Ivars, President of the IE Center for Families in Business

The study focuses on big businesses, where it can be especially difficult to keep managers’ entrepreneurial spirit alive due to the formalization and centralization of decisions that typically goes hand in hand with growth.

CEOs the world over know very well that in order to survive, they must innovate. One of the keys to achieving such innovation is to promote a strategy of “intrapreneurship,” understood as the process through which company employees encourage transformation or innovation from inside the organization. “The definition of a clear framework and ‘ground rules,’ far from restricting the entrepreneurial spirit, allows it to prosper and thus accompany the growth of companies,” Carlos Mas Ivars emphasizes.

This research, backed by data collected through a survey of 500 managers in companies with more than 200 employees in Spain across different sectors, has been led by Dr. Rocío Bonet, a professor of Human Resources Management at IE Business School–IE University.

According to Professor Bonet, this study is based on a conceptual model of the determinants that influence managers’ entrepreneurial spirit, linked to three relevant factors present in large companies:

1. The degree of delegation with regard to decision-making.
2. The degree of formalization of procedures and rules.
3. The level at which talent-management policies are introduced, pertaining to change within the company and its communication culture.

In today’s business environment, fraught with constant and unpredictable change, companies’ ability to adapt and transform rapidly is key to maintaining their competitive advantage. The conclusions of this study shed light on the organizational and managerial practices that drive innovation and intrapreneurship in businesses. These findings will prove useful to any company interested in adapting to change and continuously reinventing itself to create value.

“PROMOTING THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT OF TODAY’S TALENT” is the second installment of a collaboration agreement between IE University, IE Foundation and Coca-Cola European Partners. The collaboration aims to contribute to society and its development, and to the business world and academia, with leading knowledge on today’s most relevant topics.