Intrapreneurship Competence as a Manifestation of Work Agency: A Systematic Literature Review

Innovations are key factors for economic growth. In times of globalisation, rapidly changing markets, and economic crises, they represent an essential competitive factor for companies. This outstanding role of innovations has resulted in the requirement of new skills. The labour market is showing an increased interest in entrepreneurially oriented staff members, so-called intrapreneurs. In this context, intrapreneurship competence – the entrepreneurial thinking and acting ability of employees – constitutes an important 21st century skill. As we understand it, intrapreneurship is directed towards individuals’ innovative behaviour with regard to the generation of innovative project ideas and the planning and implementation of such projects within the organisational practice. Previous research on intrapreneurship has particularly focused on the organisational perspective (e.g. Antoncic and Hisrich, J Bus Ventur 16(5):495–527, 2001; Alpkan et al. Manag Decision, 48(5):732–755, 2010), rather than on the individual-oriented level. While considering this individual behavioural perspective of intrapreneurship, it is our aim to (a) highlight significant dispositions concerning the facets of knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSA) that are identified as being characteristic for mastering typical intrapreneurship challenges and (b) consolidate these findings within a competence model for intrapreneurship that is derived from the identified dispositions. For this purpose, we ran a comprehensive literature review according to the methodological procedure suggested by Cooper. Synthesizing research: a guide for literature reviews, 3rd edn. Sage Publications, Inc, Thousand Oaks, 2006.