Influence of Chief Executive Officer’s management styles on organizational intrapreneurship

Intrapreneurship is an effective and established field of organizational management research with an impressive history of around 25 years. An innovation culture that can be attained through intrapreneurial initiatives can add significant competitive advantages to the organizational framework. The roles played by Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) in any organization are vast in terms of involvement with creativity and innovation but there are no substantial researches that clearly identify any of their distinctive characteristics and management profiles associated with intrapreneurship. This thesis addresses these gaps using a qualitative research approach. Using a semi-structured interviewing approach, different CEO characteristics involved in the intrapreneurial climate have been studied. The thesis also explores the different intrapreneurial management profiles of CEOs in Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and how the adoption of these profiles can influence the innovation dynamics of the overall organization. Three cases of successful intrapreneurship management with their distinct CEO profiles have been illustrated in this thesis and are constructed following a longitudinal study with data primarily derived from in-depth interviews with the CEOs and different employees from these SMEs, website information, annual reports and site visits. This study will serve as a guideline for academics and corporate firms in understanding the importance of intrapreneurship in the 21st century and the role CEOs play in advancing the innovation framework of an organization. Understanding these distinctive management roles will benefit both CEOs and different organizations in approaching and practising intrapreneurial initiatives in an effective manner.