Corporate entrepreneurship programmes as mechanisms to accelerate product innovations

Abstract This paper explores how firms engage in corporate entrepreneurship through programmes, and what kind of outcomes they achieve in terms of innovations. Insights are drawn from four cases of organisations that engaged in corporate entrepreneurial activities. The paper identifies two dimensions of corporate entrepreneurship programmes as idea themes, indicating whether programmes are designed with specific themes in mind, and idea ownership, indicating whether there is a dedicated team to focus on new ideas, or not. These dimensions are under the direct control of management. Based on these two dimensions, four models of corporate entrepreneurial activities are presented linking each of these models to one of the four cases of product innovations (product line extensions, product improvements, new products, start-up businesses). By drawing on the insights of the effectuation and causation logics, the paper provides a fresh perspective of corporate entrepreneurship programmes in an emerging, non-Western cultural setup and the product innovation context. This is primarily done by introducing a 2 × 2 matrix regarding corporate entrepreneurship idea themes and idea ownership in an emerging context.