How companies motivate entrepreneurial employees : the case of organizational spin-alongs

This paper investigates how high-profile employees with entrepreneurial abilities can be attracted, retained, and nurtured in order to foster companies’ corporate entrepreneurship through innovations. We find that the spin-along design provides entrepreneurial employees with a combination of flexibility and security (flexicurity), corporate management, and control. Based on five in-depth case studies within an innovative company, our results show that the organizational spin-along structure supports and enhances entrepreneurial employees’ motivation and leads to the attraction, nurturing, and retention of such employees. We also find that senior management has a critical leadership role in enabling such an organization design by balancing flexibility and security with control.