AbstractCorporate entrepreneurship, the discovery and pursuit of new opportunities through innovation and venturing, is an important source of competitive advantage. Corporate entrepreneurship involves a diverse set of activities such as innovation in products and processes; the development of internal and external corporate ventures; and the development of new business models, which require an array of roles, behaviors, and individual competencies. In this article, we define individual competencies and distinguish them from other individual difference constructs. We argue that given the unique requirements of corporate entrepreneurship, a competency‐based approach to assessing organizational human capital needs is superior to more traditional job‐analytic methods. Drawing on existing literature, we outline a competency framework for supporting corporate entrepreneurship and infer the underlying, measurable knowledge, skills, and abilities that contribute to these competencies. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of this framework for the staffing, training and development, and performance‐appraisal practices of firms seeking to promote corporate entrepreneurship. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

We explore the interrelationship between efforts to build technology portfolios and form alliances, and the link between these technology-based strategic actions and product innovations rate in new firms. Our analysis of secondary data from 67 computer and telecommunications firms reveals significant positive relationship between technology portfolio worth and rate of alliance formation. We also find a significant positive relationship between rate of alliance formation and product innovation rate, but only a moderate relationship between technology portfolio worth and product innovation rate. Our findings suggest that new firms building valuable technology portfolios exhibit a superior capacity for forming alliances. And those forming alliances at a high rate are more likely to be frequent product innovators.

This study takes a network theoretical perspective in its examination of innovation-based corporate entrepreneurship (ICE), focusing on how project-specific ties can form for non-routine phenomena. A comparative case analysis of 246 interviews in twelve industry-leading global corporations identifies constructs associated with individual network capacity at the individual level, organizational network capacity at the organization level, and program network capacity at the ICE program level. In addition, we recognize the managerial facilitating roles of cultivator and broker. We develop propositions aimed at providing insights about the relationships among these constructs, and identify implications for managerial and ICE program responsibilities.