Abstract:
Organisations need to foster continuous innovation in order to effectively compete in
today’s global marketplace. Corporate Entrepreneurship (CE) can be seen as an
effective strategy in ensuring organisation performance and sustained competitiveness.
It is common understanding that top management guide and shape strategy however
very little understanding exists on the role that middle managers play in its execution.
The aim of this study was to investigate the differences/similarities in middle
management perceptions of the internal CE environment within four South African
industry sectors. A further aim was to identify the effect of biographical variables within
the middle management level on the perception of CE. The eight-factor 34-item
solution for the Corporate Entrepreneurship Assessment Instrument (van Wyk &
Adonisi, 2011) was used to collect data from 172 respondents.
This study identified significant differences and similarities in middle manager
perceptions on CE within the four industries. It becomes evident that understanding the
economic sector constraints on organisational culture plays a crucial role in
determining organisational CE environment. It was also discovered that biographic
variables such as age, tenure and gender play no signifficant role in determining middle
manager perceptions of CE.
