The effect of social capital and it's network antecedents on intrapreneurship

Abstract

For organisations to survive, thrive and maintain a competitive advantage, intrapreneurship is quintessential to cultivate as it can drive organisational growth, value creation and strategic resumption. To unlock intrapreneurship, it is imperative that it is understood through the lens of social capital, which has been proven to provide advantages to intrapreneurs in their intrapreneurial endeavours. Prior research has proved to be fragmented in investigating intrapreneurship from an individual level perspective, with limited focus on social capital as a driver. This study sought to bridge the research gap and unpack the influence of social capital, through the constructs of network brokerage, social network cohesion and network homophily on individual level intrapreneurship from a middle manager’s perspective. The primary outcome of the study was to propose a model of the relationships between the constructs and intrapreneurship. As a result, a conceptual model was built based on theoretical relationships and tested using Structured Equation Modelling to produce a refined theoretical model, with an acceptable model fit. The findings reported significant relationships between network brokerage, social network cohesion and network homophily with intrapreneurship. The findings provide insights for organisations, management and academia around the relationships between the constructs as well as what to seek, foster and build with middle managers to promote intrapreneurship.