The Potential of Bootstrapping Research for Advancing the Understanding of the Role of Resources in Corporate Entrepreneurship

Författare

Joakim Winborg

Summary, in English

Over the years we have seen an increased interest in businesses and in research for how to create conditions for entrepreneurship in established businesses (referring to corporate entrepreneurship). From research we know that access to and use of resources is critical for realizing corporate entrepreneurship activities. Even though the role of resources has been examined this conceptual paper identifies areas in need of development. The aim of the paper is to introduce and use insights from research in the area of bootstrapping to provide implications for how to advance the research related to the role of resources in corporate entrepreneurship. Bootstrapping is a concept that has been discussed in the independent entrepreneurship (new venture creation) context and refers to creative ways of acquiring the use of resources without using long-term external finance. The paper provides implications for development in two areas referring to two different levels of analysis. First, the paper discusses potential contributions from bootstrapping research for developing the understanding of how corporate entrepreneurs/intrapreneurs mobilize resources (referring to the individual level of analysis). Second, the paper presents implications from bootstrapping research for advancing our understanding of the role of resources for businesses seeking to renew their strategy and more specifically seeking to renew the business model. Business model as one area of corporate entrepreneurship has received much interest but the knowledge is still limited, and this in particular when it comes to how businesses actually are able to change and renew the business model.

Avdelning/ar