Entrepreneurial strategies for MNCs: A typology

Abstract

This paper, responds to the recent calls in research, to address the theoretical underpinnings of entrepreneurial strategies in MNC’s. Today, a multiplicity of entrepreneurial approaches exists, cf. skunk work, bricolage, bootlegging. However, these exists in disparate literature, that provides limited oversight to managers in, that need to select between a manifold of different entrepreneurial strategies. Moreover, these approaches typically originate from a distinctively different organizational context, namely SMEs. Through a literature review we identify two important axiomatic assumptions concerning entrepreneurial strategies within the organizational conditions of MNCs. The first fundamental assumption concerns the organizational origin of such effort. The second theoretical assumption deals with how the entrepreneurial initiative can meet either organizational resistance or support. We synthesize these two dimensions into a two-by-two matrix, that provides an answer to our research question: what are the critical dimensions for entrepreneurial strategies in an MNC context? We then employ this typology to categorize predominant entrepreneurial strategies in current literature, to create a overview that can be used both for structuring the debate in the literature; as well as a basis to discuss important implicit assumptions, that should guide the selection of entrepreneurial strategy in a MNC context in practice.