Breaking the Ceiling : An Explorative Study on Challenges for Women in Intrapreneurship

Abstract: That women experience different and even more challenges within the corporate environment than men do is no news. For female entrepreneurs, the challenges they experience entering the entrepreneurial setting have been and are still being researched. Studies show that specifically female entrepreneurs face challenges such as balancing work and family, lack of networks, and creating credibility and legitimacy. However, how these challenges differ for women who innovate within companies in an intrapreneurial setting is a subject that needs more research. To explore and further understand these challenges a qualitative study has been executed with semi-structured interviews of female intrapreneurs. The findings of this study reveal that there seems to be a similarity between the challenges that female entrepreneurs and female intrapreneurs experience. These challenges were balancing work and family/social life, the glass ceiling phenomenon, creating internal credibility and legitimacy, and networking. However, it also shows that there are some perceived differences and challenges, namely, external credibility and legitimacy, raising funding, and policies applied differently to female intrapreneurs. Lastly, two unique challenges were found for females in intrapreneurship, namely, the company culture and the lack of role models. Moreover, a pattern that repeatedly came up was empowerment among women, which might not necessarily be viewed as a challenge. These findings give a reasonable indication of the challenges for women in intrapreneurship and help give direction for future research within this field.