Both at the individual and corporate level, entrepreneurship and business are becoming an integral part of any innovation ecosystem. The corporate entrepreneurship theory is based on interaction of innovative efficiency, and media entrepreneurship (Hampel et al., 2020). Corporate entrepreneurship (CE) is a process that allows existing companies to expand and reorient their business profile, entering new markets and creating new businesses and products. In addition, CE also includes four models: the opportunistic model, the enabler model, the advocate model, and the producer model. Internal entrepreneurship is one of the most promising tools for creating new products and developing employees (Khajeheian, 2017). Breakthrough ideas within companies provide an opportunity to increase the competitiveness of the business.
Innovative efficiency is the result of corporate activity; therefore, it is directly related to the previous model. For example, according to Hang (2016), it is considered as “the degree to which new products, goods and services, are fit for purpose on the market” (p. 7). Thus, all three cases are interconnected and complement each other. The main characteristics of the CE process are:
- use of internal resources (redundant, saved, generated),
- expanding the company’s competencies in areas where it has not previously conducted business, and
- the acquisition of skills and knowledge to master these areas.
The CE is also based on the initiative of employees, individually or in a group, who take responsibility for the consequences of the project. Internal entrepreneurship is a collection of autonomous innovation initiatives of company employees acting as entrepreneurs. The benefits of being involved in the CE process, if properly managed, are significant, including:
- improvement of financial performance and strategic positions of the company,
- stable growth due to our developments, and not the acquisition of other people’s businesses,
- innovations aimed at improving processes within the company, and, as a result,
- expansion and improvement of the company’s product portfolio
Samsung uses corporate entrepreneurship models such as the Opportunist and the Producer (Last Name, Year). This model has several advantages that the company uses very actively. It means that the company’s employees can create new concepts on their own, however, considering the basic principles of the organization for which they work (Kim & Park, 2020). At the same time, Samsung is trying to encourage collaboration between the various divisions of the company. It also fosters the interaction of older, more experienced employees with newcomers, who entrepreneurs help move out of their comfort zone.
Samsung C-Lab, introduced in December 2012, is an enterprise venture capital system that includes the above models. This project helps to activate and stimulate the further dissemination of a creative culture in the organization, which allows the discovery of new creative ideas (Shin & Cho, 2020). In an organization as flexible as the C-Lab, anyone can take on a leadership role if they have new ideas.
Samsung C-Lab has been actively supporting the corporate venture capital system for the past eight years, joining the efforts of new employees with more experienced ones. That is due to the fact that Samsung C-Lab is a significantly implemented idea, in which the proposed method has been actively and continuously working for many years (Ferreira et al., 2018). At the same time, the process of creating and implementing the proposed C-Lab ideas is carried out systematically (Shin & Cho, 2020). It is the case of a centralized corporate enterprise and refers to an internal corporate in which ideas originate from the parent company.
In August 2015, Samsung Electronics implemented its new corporate entrepreneurship system based on the venture capital system. As a result, 163 employees took part in the creation of 45 independent corporations. (Kazanjian et al., 2017). This fact demonstrates the implementation of the Producer model in a large company. Samsung Electronics is pushing for such a new system because it is essential to directly study consumer reactions to products and services. It allows the company to communicate quickly and receive an assessment in the market (Minola et al., 2020). Thus, launching the C-Lab project, Samsung is trying to effectively combine all three theories of effective entrepreneurship, corporate and media entrepreneurship, and innovative efficiency, which are based on Opportunist and Producer models.
Such a flexible organization also has limitations, so the team must always be mindful of the stagnation of ideas. The probability is relatively small since the C-lab is a large project with many employees. To prevent this, Samsung uses a model of interaction between new employees and already experienced ones. At the same time, care should be taken to avoid conflicts based on hierarchical relationships. Another obstacle to such openness within the company can be an unjustified idea that turned out to be unprofitable. Unfortunately, it is impossible to be insured against such an outcome even in ordinary business (Popowska, 2020). However, this can significantly affect both the employee’s reputation and the company’s reputation. That is why Samsung must, to some extent, control the implementation of new ideas so that they do not differ from the company’s policy.
Based on the analysis of the example of the implementation of strategies and models of corporate entrepreneurship in Samsung, it can be concluded that a well-thought-out concept can justify itself, despite various shortcomings in theory. The corporate entrepreneurship models also selected by Samsung, it is possible to design systems suitable for small companies. For example, a procedure of experiments, because of which each employee can create new technology and launch a project within the company. The supervisor may review such projects regularly over a while. An experiment can stand out as a separate business line or become a subdivision of an existing service. The corporate ventures and subsidiaries of a large company like Samsung are a good proof of the importance and power of corporate entrepreneurship.
References
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