Keeping it in the family – The relative importance of strategic internal and external relationships in corporate entrepreneurship

This paper examines the idea that the formulation of internal and external relationships, at astrategic level in organisations, is central to the successful implementation of corporateentrepreneurship. It considers external and internal relationships and the dichotomy betweeninternally sustained/organised and externally partnered venturing. By the use of case studyanalysis from well known international organisations, a matrix of corporate entrepreneurialstrategies has been formulated. This plots the vectors into which an organisation can sit withregard to its strategic decisions on developing corporate entrepreneurship and the subsequentrelationships necessary for successful implementation.There are several options an organisation can pursue in embracing a strategic intent towardscorporate entrepreneurship. These can include passively waiting for new idea generation fromcurrent employees through to actively seeking new ideas from outside entrepreneurs. There seemto be varying appreciation in the case studies of the importance of relationships with outsiders tothe organisation in developing venture programmes. These relationships can be either fromindividuals or organisations with proposed ‘spin-ins’ or opportunities for investment in relatedproducts or services; or from outside organisations providing consultancy and financialinvestment. These relationships are examined and provide evidence for the formation of thematrix of possible responses to the development of entrepreneurial organisations.[...]