A Systems View Across Time and Space
Table 1 Entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship
Entrepreneurship | Intrapreneurship or CE |
|---|---|
Similarities | |
 Recognition and definition of opportunity | |
 Unique business strategy in innovative development of services and products | |
 Motivated person or a team to materialize a concept into action | |
 The requirement of balance and patience between all managerial affairs with a proactive approach and passion | |
 A concept that evolved for adoption and is in the formative stage, the vulnerability of change due to most robust academic research | |
 Opportunity always exists for successful capitalisation of concept | |
 Customer focused approach with value creation | |
 An ability by a person to encounter and clear resistances and explore creative ways in pursuit of problem-solving or venture creation | |
 Capability to encounter risk and counter through effective management | |
 Significant vagueness exists in concept and execution | |
Differences | |
 Entrepreneur takes risk | Organisation as a whole assumes all kind of risks resulting out of innovative actions except risk on the career of an intrapreneur |
 Entrepreneur owns the innovative idea or business concept | Organisation benefits from the idea and intellectual property encompassing the concept |
 Entrepreneur owns the equity and ownership of all or much of the firm created out of entrepreneurial actions | Intrapreneur shares little or no equity resulting out of the intrapreneurial venture |
 Entrepreneur is the principal beneficiary and reward after success is unlimited; likewise, entrepreneur have to bear all forms of failures | With regard to the case of success, intrapreneur or the team can be rewarded as per organisational policy; failures, however, are generally absorbed by the company and intrapreneur faces career risks in selected cases |
 More vulnerable to outside influences | Intrapreneur is protected as being within the organisation |
 A start-up entrepreneur can be quite independent although backed by a strong team | Intrapreneur is typically very interdependent on many others with whom he or she needs to share credit |
 Entrepreneur has the flexibility of changing its course during entrepreneurial efforts | Intrapreneurs have limited flexibility and option to change course or use own intuition in pursuit of the goal as company policy will always take superiority |
 Entrepreneur can take speedy decisions | Long approval cycles are generally involved in case of intrapreneurial actions |
 Entrepreneurs are less secure and less professional guidance is available due to limited circle | Intrapreneurs are more secure due to job and associated benefits linked with network formed by the organisation including external and internal associates who can suggest or even bounce ideas |
 Limited or less than required resources are generally available with entrepreneurs | Organisation resources like finances, marketing force, distribution channels, R&D, and customer base are available at the disposal of intrapreneur or team engaged in innovative development for the company |
 Entrepreneur has a limited scope at the earlier stage | Intrapreneurial outcome has a greater amount of scope for rapid expansion at an increasingly faster pace due to organisational efforts |