Come to work each day willing to be fired : A study of intrapreneurship within Swedish SMEs active in developing countries

Abstract:

The aim of this thesis is to enlighten intrapreneurship as a subject and the implementations and effect it has on small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) pushing towards organizational change in developing countries. Therefore the specific traits of SMEs in developing countries are examined and related to the promotion of intraprenuership. To gain deeper understanding and achieve the aim of the study a research question was created; How can Swedish SMEs foster intrapreneurship in order to create organizational change in developing countries?

The theoretical framework in this thesis is divided into three main areas; organizational change, promotion of intrapreneurship and innovation. In this study a qualitative methodology with an abductive approach is used. The empirical data is collected through interviews of three companies; Norden Machinery AB, Bigso AB and Sara Woodcraft.

In the analysis the empirical data is analyzed based on the theoretical framework which leads to the conclusion. This study show that first and foremost intrapreneurship does create organizational change and is an important part of survival for SMEs in developing countries and further that promotion of intrapreneurship demands certain factors to be successful. These factors are ways for organizations to create an environment where innovation and intrapreneurship grows. Furthermore we present what we argue the current theory lack and our contribution as well as managerial implementations which focus on the promotion of intrapreneurship and further research within the subject.