The impact of risk propensity on corporate entrepreneurship

By Matthew Lawson

Source: http://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/43984  November 10, 2014

Abstract:

There has been a vast amount of research done in the fields of Entrepreneurship and Risk Taking. There is, however, very little literature regarding the relationship between Risk Taking and Corporate Entrepreneurship (CE). This study attempts to understand that relationship whilst exploring the impact of Risk Propensity on Corporate Entrepreneurship with the intention of questioning current CE frameworks. The objective was to establish criteria to increase CE in the business environment. A bespoke questionnaire was sent out to determine both the individual Risk Propensity of the respondents and their perception of CE within their organisation. The elements of the questionnaire were based on well-known instruments available in literature. The variables used to explore the data further were based on the demographic information supplied by the respondents. The main objective of the study was to determine the relationship between Risk Propensity and CE with the secondary objectives looking to explore the variation in both Risk Propensity and CE across the established variables. The findings indicate little or no relationship between Risk Propensity and CE whilst the results from the variable analysis highlight the importance of Organisational Boundaries as a factor of CE. A framework is then proposed synthesising the results of the analysis before concluding with recommendations for future research.