Fostering Corporate Entrepreneurship in SMEs: Evidence from India

Abstract

There is fair consensus regarding the importance of creating a supportive internal environment within organizations to encourage entrepreneurial mindsets and behavior. The majority of extant studies have involved large-sized organizations in the Western context. This study aims to extend the understanding of well-established antecedents of corporate entrepreneurship (CE) to small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in the Indian context, propose a new variable, and test its influence on CE. Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was applied to a sample of 185 respondents belonging to various managerial levels across different Indian SMEs. The results show a positive and significant relationship between management support, rewards and recognition and organizational values for fostering CE in Indian SMEs. SMEs play a significant role in socio-economic development, and this study can help understand how the benefits of CE can be leveraged to increase SMEs’ innovativeness and competitive advantage.