Resumo

As corporate environments have become increasingly volatile and complex, intrapreneurship has emerged as a powerful catalyst for innovation and idea generation (Calisto & Sarkar, 2017; 2023). However, it is still a challenge to outline strategic paths that lead organisations to high performance and effectively insert intrapreneurship into business routines, especially for small and medium-sized companies (Martín-Rojas et al., 2016). In this sense, the guidelines for searching, analysing, and accepting/rejecting the bibliography consulted in the databases for this systematic literature review.

Given the relevance of the topic and, in line with the research gap identified by Martín-Rojas et al. (2017) and Blanka (2019) regarding the intrapreneurship-performance relationship, the question is: what are the consonances between the individual skills of intrapreneurs and organisational performance? To answer this question, the objective of this study was to identify, examine, and synthesise the existing literature on the individual skills of intrapreneurs and their contributions to high corporate performance.

Intrapreneurship is seen as an essential condition for the company’s capacity for innovation and sustainable competitiveness (Alshaar et al., 2023; Kantur, 2016), as it facilitates renewal activities on the part of employees and access to organisational resources on business-related projects (Badoiu et al., 2020; Calisto & Sarkar, 2017; 2023). In this way, intrapreneurship can exert a significant influence on organisational performance (Badoiu et al., 2020; Ye et al., 2023) in several dimensions (Luu, 2020), such as greater profitability, increasing market share, carrying out strategic renewal

The analysis of the articles identified three main intrapreneurial characteristics: proactivity, innovation, and risk-taking. According to Calisto and Sarkar (2017; 2023) and Gorgievski et al. (2023), these results allow us to infer that the authors follow the trend of initial studies (Burgelman, 1983; Miller, 1983; Pinchot, 1985), which already identified these skills as the main ones. From the analysis of the 52 selected articles, two skills emerged: Teamwork and Leadership.

More recent studies have revealed in a fragmented way other essential skills of intrapreneurial behaviour (Leadership and Teamwork) without giving due importance to these skills in the innovation process and, consequently, the impact on organisational performance. Thus, this study contributes to the understanding of the importance of Leadership and Teamwork from the lens of intrapreneurship by offering relevant insights on the topic.

Blanka, C. (2019). An individual-level perspective on intrapreneurship: a review and ways forward. Review of Managerial Science, 13(5):919-961. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11846-018-0277-0 Calisto, M.L., & Sarkar, S. (2023). Intrapreneurial behaviour and in-role job performance across organisational ecosystems in tourism and hospitality. International Journal Tourism Research. 25(2):236–248. https://doi.org/10.1002/jtr.2563