How to Manage the Coexistence of Corporate Entrepreneurship and the Core Business. The story of large companies pursuit of tomorrow´s business

Abstract

Large companies today faces many challenges due to the changing global environment, new conditions require new ways of managing the company. Further, due to the bureaucracy and hierarchy that follows with the size a company, large established companies find themselves losing the innovation and risk taking they once had. Corporate entrepreneurship is presented as a solution to this dilemma. However, corporate entrepreneurship is difficult to manage since it requires both new and old organizational traits. To be able to both explore and exploit at the same time companies need to establish an ambidextrous organization. In light of this, the main purpose of this thesis is to investigate how large established companies manage the coexistence of corporate entrepreneurship with their core business. The theoretical framework suggest different ways of organizing the company in order to achieve ambidexterity, and different tools to use in order to manage the operations of corporate entrepreneurship. The empirical findings demonstrate that the investigated companies organize themselves in similar ways for corporate entrepreneurship but experience challenges with it. Further, the case companies make use of the different tools suggested in order to manage corporate entrepreneurship, but to different extent and with different engagements.