Entrepreneurship: a review and agenda for future research

Abstract

Zahra, Kuratko, and Jennings (1999) noted that “some of the world’s best-known companies had to endure a painful transformation to become more entrepreneurial. They had to endure years of reorganization, downsizing, and restructuring. These changes altered the identity or culture of these firms, infusing a new innovative spirit throughout their operations… change, innovation, and entrepreneurship became highly regarded words”. Similarly, Dess, Lumpkin, and McGee (1999) noted that “virtually all organizations— new startups, major corporations, and alliances among global partners— are striving to exploit product-market opportunities through innovative and proactive behavior—the type of behavior that is called for by innovation and entrepreneurship”. This increased emphasis on innovation and entrepreneurial behavior within existing organizations involves a significant role for firms’ human resources and human resource management practices. The important question to be answered is: which human resource policies, practices and systems are likely to help initiate and sustain corporate entrepreneurship? The goal of this paper is to begin to answer this question by proposing a model of how critical elements of CE and HR fit together, discussing the important human resource management (HRM) elements necessary for initiating and sustaining corporate entrepreneurship behavior and by setting an agenda for important future research topics.