Organizations as biomes of entrepreneurial life: Towards a clarification of the corporate entrepreneurship process

In 1983, Robert A. Burgelman published an influential paper in the field of strategic entrepreneurship, holding that the autonomous entrepreneurial initiative of employees and top management's desire for it might be simultaneously present, simultaneously absent, or go in opposite directions, yielding paradoxical results. To the best of our knowledge, this proposition, that translates into four types of organizations with regards to the process of corporate entrepreneurship, has however never been empirically tested before. Our results partially confirm Burgelman's ideas, while uncovering an unexpected transitional organizational archetype. Borrowing from Biology we metaphorically identify these archetypes as biomes of entrepreneurial life. This study takes an important step towards understanding the corporate entrepreneurial process, contributing not only to scholarship in the domain, but also rendering our conclusions particularly relevant for practitioners. The uncovering of a transitional archetype also holds significant implications for the main entrepreneurship literature in what refers to startup teams. •Conducts an empirical analysis of potential corporate entrepreneurship paradoxes•Proposes organizational archetypes based on both firm and individual behaviors•Uncovers a specific archetype (ecotone) with implications to the startup literature•Contributes to the scant literature on corporate entrepreneurship in SMEs•Stresses the need for new organizational arrangements regarding intrapreneurship.