Drivers of Intrapreneurial Innovation: A Study of Individual Innovative Behaviour in Organisations

Abstract

Organisations can gain a competitive edge through Intrapreneurial Behaviour (IB) by swiftly innovating and adapting to market changes. Research indicates that intrapreneurship plays a crucial role in the banking sector in achieving a competitive advantage. Organisations can enhance their intrapreneurial capability by leveraging Individual Innovative Behaviour (IIB). However, innovation in the banking sector is often constrained by strict regulations, high safety requirements, and a fundamental need for trust and stability. Therefore, it is important to embrace and stimulate factors that encourage and enable innovation. To our knowledge, research on how intrapreneurship can be stimulated and measured in the Dutch banking sector is currently lacking. Thus, developing indicators and metrics for measuring intrapreneurship in Dutch banks is essential. This study investigates the factors affecting IIB using a quantitative survey. Building on the connection between IB and IIB, IIB is treated as a dimension of IB. The perceived work context, comprising an organisation's entrepreneurial orientation and innovative climate, can empower employees' IIB in the digital era. This context encourages them to generate new ideas and engage in collaborative innovation without fear of failure, thus fostering IIB. Our study explores factors driving IIB, empowering employees to act as intrapreneurs through organisations perceived Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) and Innovative Climate (IC), with Digital Maturity (DM) as a moderating variable. Data were collected in 2021 from the three largest Dutch banks, which hold over 43% of the market share. A snowball sampling method was used to reach Dutch bank managers knowledgeable about the study's key constructs. This method involved initial contact with human resources departments and managers within these banks. The survey was administered to 167 managers, yielding 125 usable responses (75% response rate). Results indicate that employees in the banking industry with high DM are more likely to engage in IIB when firms support EO strategies and IC, and when employees adopt self-leadership skills.