Intrapreneurship championing, a moderator between employee entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance in SMEs

Abstract

This research examined intrapreneurial effort in small and medium firms, where workers may act entrepreneurially. Management decides to foster intrapreneurship in workers based on many reasons. These include the company's entrepreneurial spirit and management's encouragement of it. Entrepreneurial orientation, firm performance, and intrapreneurship championing are analysed. The quantitative study sampled 124 workers from various South African SMEs. Organizational culture and workers' desire to take on more responsibility for their job affected intrapreneurial activity in organizations. Intrapreneurship advocacy by organisations strengthens the beneficial association between entrepreneurial orientation and business success, as shown by earlier research. This research may help small company managers inspire their staff to be more entrepreneurial and develop their firm. The findings also demonstrated that the research had significant shortcomings that might impair its validity. The data was gathered during a brief time and may not represent the situation throughout the research. The study's sample size may have been too small to provide meaningful findings for certain factors. However, the research gives some important insights into the elements that influence workers' willingness to take on more responsibility and produce new ideas that provide value to the firm. To understand how intrapreneurial effort promotes innovation and SMEs in South Africa, additional study is needed.