Justin Jansen urges businesses to ‘be more creative for business success’


Dutch organisations put too much effort into improving existing processes, products and services when they could achieve greater business success by being more creative and entrepreneurial, according to <link people justin-jansen _blank>Justin Jansen, Professor of Corporate Entrepreneurship at Erasmus University. On 14 April, he presented his ideas for a more entrepreneurial business future in his inaugural address, entitled: Corporate Entrepreneurship: Sensing and Seizing Opportunities for a Prosperous Research Agenda”.

Jansen: “Currently, over 85% of Dutch organisations focus on the improvement of existing products, services and processes, whereas only creative and entrepreneurial out-of-the-box ideas and initiatives really would drive organisations forward. The aim of this inaugural address is to draw the foundations and to identify emergent opportunities for moving research on strategic entrepreneurship in general and corporate entrepreneurship in particular forward.”

In the address, he considers the challenges associated with corporate entrepreneurship and describes important organisational and managerial features of successful organisations. Jansen argues that the integration of theory and research in strategic management and entrepreneurship with an increased focus on the role of middle management and on self-organising teams will generate valuable new research avenues.

Corporate entrepreneurship – the process whereby firms engage in diversification through internal development – and the application of new knowledge have become increasingly important to keep Dutch companies competitive in an international context. Jansen: “If you look at what happens in China, the organisational context for corporate entrepreneurship seems much more favourable. So Chinese firms constantly innovate, and hence Dutch organisations find them more and more competitive. Obviously we have some very good examples of self-re-inventing corporations like DSM and Ten Cate – but we really need more of these!”

About Justin Jansen

<link people justin-jansen _blank>Justin Jansen is Professor of Corporate Entrepreneurship at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. He obtained his PhD Cum Laude in 2005. His research on absorptive capacity, corporate entrepreneurship and organisational ambidexterity has been published in leading management journals, including the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Management Studies, Management Science, Organization Science, The Leadership Quarterly, as well as in several books and book chapters. He is associate editor of the Journal of Management Studies and is a member of the editorial boards of the Academy of Management Journal and Strategic Management Journal. Media coverage of his research includes reports by Een Vandaag, NOS Radio, BNR Newsradio, Financieele Dagblad, NRC Handelsblad, Staatscourant, Trouw, and Volkskrant.

Abstract of ‘Corporate Entrepreneurship’

Strategic and corporate entrepreneurship are widely acknowledged by scholars and executives alike as an effective means of revitalising organisations to improve performance. Spurring entrepreneurial behaviour and exploration within established organisations, however, remains a big challenge facing today’s businesses. As organisations grow and age over time, like people in general, they tend to become set in their ways of thinking, learning, managing and acting – they become less flexible and less willing to sense and seize new opportunities.

There is little doubt that the mindsets and organisational attributes needed for exploring and leveraging new opportunities are radically different from those needed for smoothening ongoing operations, making it difficult to pursue both sets of activities at the same time within one organisation. Given the importance for future sustainable growth, scholars have yet to uncover how organisations may reconcile conflicting demands and resolve the challenges associated with corporate entrepreneurship’s emphasis on leveraging existing opportunities as well as new ones ‘out there’.

The aim of this inaugural address is to draw the foundations and to identify emergent opportunities for moving forward research on strategic entrepreneurship in general and on corporate entrepreneurship in particular. It considers the challenges associated with corporate entrepreneurship and details important organisational and managerial features of successful organisations that span different levels of analysis. The inaugural address concludes that the integration of theory and research in strategic management and entrepreneurship using such a multilevel approach generates valuable new research avenues underlying a prosperous research agenda.