Entrepreneurial Behavior in Organizations: Does Job Design Matter?

2013/12/06 by Jeroen P.J. de Jong, Sharon K. Parker, Sander Wennekers +1 · 1 citation
Business, Management and Accounting · #Entrepreneurship Studies and Influences #Innovation and Socioeconomic Development #Family Business Performance and Succession

paper · doi:10.1111/etap.12084

openalex publication_date 2013/12/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

We take a first step to explore how organizational factors influence individual entrepreneurial behavior at work, by investigating the role of job design variables. Drawing on multiple–source survey data of 179 workers in a Dutch research and consultancy organization, we find that entrepreneurial behavior, indicated by innovation, proactivity, and risk–taking items, is a higher order construct. Job autonomy is positively related with entrepreneurial behavior, as well as its innovation and proactivity subdimensions, while job variety is not. This suggests that interventions related to the vertical scope of jobs will promote entrepreneurial behaviors more than horizontal job expansion.

Citations

• Enhancing role breadth self-efficacy: The roles of job enrichment and other organizational interventions.
• Individual Entrepreneurial Intent: Construct Clarification and Development of an Internationally Reliable Metric
• Motivation through the design of work: test of a theory
• The proactive component of organizational behavior: A measure and correlates
• The Work Design Questionnaire (WDQ): Developing and validating a comprehensive measure for assessing job design and the nature of work.
• Taking Stock: Integrating and Differentiating Multiple Proactive Behaviors
• Entrepreneurial Orientation and Business Performance: An Assessment of past Research and Suggestions for the Future

Cited by

• Intrapreneurship [wikipedia]