INTRAPRENEURSHIP IN ORGANIZATIONS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF ANTECEDENTS IN THE PAST DECADE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18623/rvd.v23.8029Keywords:
Intrapreneurship, Human Capital, Academic Intrapreneurship, Innovation, Entrepreneurial Behavior, Entrepreneurial Ecosystems, Value CreationAbstract
As organizations continue to seek for means of stimulating sustainable value creation in a highly competitive business environment, instilling entrepreneurial behavior among employees become a non-negotiable capability. This study systematically reviews the intrapreneurship literature from 2015 to 2025 to identify dominant research themes and examine the outcomes associated with intrapreneurial activities. Using the Systematic Quantitative Assessment Technique (SQAT), 84 peer-reviewed articles retrieved from five academic databases were analysed. The findings reveal three dominant themes including human capital, academic intrapreneurship, and innovation. Human capital was the most prominent theme which shows the importance of employee competencies, psychological resources, and continuous learning in nurturing intrapreneurial behavior within established firms. Academic intrapreneurship also provided evidence of the growing role of universities in knowledge commercialization, regional innovation, and entrepreneurial ecosystem development. The review provides an indication of the evolution of intrapreneurship from an employee-level activities to a strategic capabilities for organizational and societal value creation. The study emphasized the need for future research within geographic regions such as Africa, where intrapreneurship research remains relatively low over the past decade. The study recommends that tertiary institutions embrace academic intrapreneurship by strengthening industry partnerships and research commercialization mechanisms to enhance their contribution to entrepreneurial ecosystem development and national economic transformation.
References
Ambos, T. C., & Tatarinov, K. (2022). Building responsible innovation in international organizations through intrapreneurship. Journal of Management Studies, 59(1), 92-125.
Audretsch, D. B., Belitski, M., & Scarra, D. (2024). Intrapreneurship activity and access to finance in natural science: Evidence from the UK academic spinoffs. Technovation, 129, 102888.
Burkholder, P., & Hulsink, W. (2025). Academic intrapreneurship for health care innovation: the importance of influence, perception, and time management in knowledge commercialization at a University’s Medical Centre. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 50(6), 2966-2994.
Cadar, O., & Badulescu, D. (2015). Entrepreneur, entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship. A literature review. Annals of Faculty of Economics, 1(2), 658–664.
Cheng, Y., Zhou, X., & Li, Y. (2024). The effect of digital transformation on intrapreneurship in real economy enterprises: a labor input perspective. Management Decision, 62(8), 2578-2598.
Chouchane, R., & St-Jean, É. (2025). The nexus between intrapreneurship and person-job fit: a qualitative comparative analysis of work motivation in SMEs. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, 12(2), 252-276.
De Keyser, B., & Vandenbempt, K. (2023). Processes of practice in the realm of theory: Unveiling the dynamics of academic intrapreneurship. Technovation, 126, 102811.
Dovey, K., & Rembach, M. (2015). Invisible practices; innovative outcomes: Intrapreneurship within the academy. Action Learning: Research and Practice, 12(3), 276-292.
Dung, L. T., & Giang, H. T. T. (2022). The effect of international intrapreneurship on firm export performance with driving force of organizational factors. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 37(11), 2185-2204.
Duradoni, M., & Di Fabio, A. (2019). Intrapreneurial self-capital and sustainable innovative behavior within organizations. Sustainability, 11(2), 322.
Engzell, J., Klofsten, M., & Lundmark, E. (2025). Academic intrapreneurship beyond commercialisation: Exploring the establishment of a research centre as an intrapreneurial venture. Triple Helix, 11(3), 258-285.
Falola, H. O., Salau, O. P., Olokundun, M. A., Oyafunke-Omoniyi, C. O., Ibidunni, A. S., & Oludayo, O. A. (2018). Employees' intrapreneurial engagement initiatives and its influence on organisational survival. Verslas: teorija ir praktika/business: Theory and practice, 19, 9-16.
Geradts, T. H., & Alt, E. (2022). Social entrepreneurial action in established organizations: Developing the concept of social intrapreneurship. Journal of Business Research, 151, 197-206.
Herlina, M. G., Fitrianastasya, F., Ratih, S., & Amandha, M. (2024). Unlocking innovation from within: The power of tacit knowledge and change adaptability in Indonesian internal organisational innovation processes. Economics and Culture, 21(1), 10-28.
Khelladi, I., Castellano, S., & Vinçotte, E. C. (2025). The role of social intrapreneurship and serious games in generating social innovation in the healthcare sector. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 31(2-3), 631-647.
Lara-Bocanegra, A., Pedragosa, V., García-Fernández, J., & Bohórquez, M. R. (2025). Fit-intrapreneurship in the emerging economy of health and fitness industry. Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies, 17(1), 98-117.
Letsie, T. M. (2017). Antecedents of intrapreneurship practice among public hospital unit nurse managers. International journal of Africa nursing sciences, 7, 126-135.
Liao, F., Li, A., Zhang, Q., & Yang, J. (2022). Recognizing opportunities when individual engaged in intrapreneurship: The role of creative self-efficacy and support for innovation. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 937971.
Loosemore, M., & Alkilani, S. (2026). An exploration of social procurement intrapreneurship in the Australian construction industry using bricolage theory–a public procurement policy perspective. Journal of Public Procurement, 26(3), 361-388.
Manjon, M. J., Merino, A., & Cairns, I. (2021). Tackling energy poverty through social intrapreneurship in large-scale energy companies. Social Enterprise Journal, 17(4), 604-624.
Martínez-Caro, E., Cegarra-Navarro, J. G., & Alfonso-Ruiz, F. J. (2020). Digital technologies and firm performance: The role of digital organisational culture. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 154, 119962.
Moraes, G. H. S. M. D., Schaeffer, P. R., Alves, A. C., & Heaton, S. (2025). Exploring a link between faculty intrapreneurship, student entrepreneurship and ecosystem dynamism. Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies, 17(2), 336-356.
Morais, G. M., Santos, V. D., Tolentino, R. D. S. D. S., & Martins, H. (2021). Intrapreneurship, innovation, and competitiveness in organization. International Journal of Business Administration, 12(2), 1-14.
Nafari, J., Honig, B., & Siqueira, A. C. O. (2024). Promoting academic social intrapreneurship: Developing an international virtual incubator and fostering social impact. Technovation, 133, 103024.
Nandan, M., London, M., & Bent-Goodley, T. (2015). Social workers as social change agents: Social innovation, social intrapreneurship, and social entrepreneurship. Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance, 39(1), 38-56.
Neessen, P. C., Caniëls, M. C., Vos, B., & De Jong, J. P. (2019). The intrapreneurial employee: toward an integrated model of intrapreneurship and research agenda. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 15(2), 545-571.
Nouman, H., Cnaan, R. A., & Choi, D. Y. (2025). Human service organizations as an arena for social intrapreneurship: A cross‐country analysis. Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance, 49(5), 493-505.
Özsungur, F. (2020). The effects of ethical leadership on work engagement, intrapreneurship, and service innovation behavior: sample of chambers of commerce and industry. International Journal of Public Leadership, 16(2), 199-216.
Pandey, J., Gupta, M., & Hassan, Y. (2021). Intrapreneurship to engage employees: role of psychological capital. Management Decision, 59(6), 1525-1545.
Pellegrini, C., Annunziata, E., Rizzi, F., & Frey, M. (2019). The role of networks and sustainable intrapreneurship as interactive drivers catalyzing the adoption of sustainable innovation. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 26(5), 1026-1048.
Pickering, C., & Byrne, J. (2014). The benefits of publishing systematic quantitative literature reviews for PhD candidates and other early-career researchers. Higher Education Research & Development, 33(3), 534-548.
Qasim, D., Shuhaiber, A., & Rawshdeh, Z. (2025). The impact of entrepreneurial orientation on innovation performance: the role of knowledge sharing as a mediating factor. Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 14(1), 83.
Ravina-Ripoll, R., Galvan-Vela, E., Sorzano-Rodríguez, D. M., & Ruíz-Corrales, M. (2023). Mapping intrapreneurship through the dimensions of happiness at work and internal communication. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 28(2), 230-248.
Rivera, M. J. (2017). Leveraging innovation and intrapreneurship as a source for organizational growth. International Journal of Innovation Science, 9(2), 137-152.
Umar, Z., Dauda, A., & Kufre, H. (2025). Entrepreneurial ecosystem in a post-COVID-19 world: A systematic literature review. International Entrepreneurship Review, 11(1), 23-36.
van Egeraat, C., & Curran, D. (2022). Intrapreneurship and regional development in the South East of Ireland. Regional Studies, Regional Science, 9(1), 526-548.
Wan, W., Liu, L., & Wang, X. (2020). How user-driven innovation and employee intrapreneurship promote platform enterprise performance. Management Decision, 58(12), 2705-2723.
Widya-Hasuti, A., Mardani, A., Streimikiene, D., Sharifara, A., & Cavallaro, F. (2018). The role of process innovation between firm-specific capabilities and sustainable innovation in SMEs: Empirical evidence from Indonesia. Sustainability, 10(7), 2244.
Zhou, S., Zhang, G., Liu, L., & Li, Y. (2024). When and why does platform leadership drive employee intrapreneurship? Moderating role of innovation‐oriented human resource management. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 62(4), e12422.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
I (we) submit this article which is original and unpublished, of my (our) own authorship, to the evaluation of the Veredas do Direito Journal, and agree that the related copyrights will become exclusive property of the Journal, being prohibited any partial or total copy in any other part or other printed or online communication vehicle dissociated from the Veredas do Direito Journal, without the necessary and prior authorization that should be requested in writing to Editor in Chief. I (we) also declare that there is no conflict of interest between the articles theme, the author (s) and enterprises, institutions or individuals.
I (we) recognize that the Veredas do Direito Journal is licensed under a CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE.
Licença Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
