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This study aims to understand the mechanisms through which workplace spirituality affects employees’ entrepreneurial behavior. It proposes and tests a mediation model in which psychological ownership (PO), a feeling of ownership regardless of legal ownership, mediates the relationship between workplace spirituality and employees’ entrepreneurial behavior.

An empirical analysis was conducted with survey data collected from 351 postgraduate students who were also currently working. Structural equation modeling was applied to test the study hypotheses using Mplus software.

Workplace spirituality is associated with employees’ entrepreneurial behavior, and PO fully mediates this relationship. The findings highlight that PO is the missing link that connects workplace spirituality and employees’ entrepreneurial behavior.

This study offers organizations a new insight by showing that PO plays a key role in contributing to the entrepreneurial behavior of employees who consider themselves spiritual.

The mechanism for the relationship between workplace spirituality and employees’ entrepreneurial behavior is explained.

Employees' entrepreneurial behavior, innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking can contribute to business performance and success, making it important for the organization. Yet, little is known about how management can promote their employees' entrepreneurial behaviors. Based on workplace resources theories, the present study tested a serial mediation model. Empowering leadership predicts employees' resources of role breadth self-efficacy and meaningful work via demand-ability fit and need-supply fit, which subsequently lead employees to exhibit entrepreneurial behaviors.

Korean employees (n = 200) working in a variety of industries participated in a two-wave survey with a five-week time lag.

Structural equation modeling supported a serial mediation model showing how empowering leadership can promote employees' person-job fit. Increased person-job fit was related to enhanced employees' role breadth self-efficacy and meaningful work, which in turn predicted entrepreneurial behaviors. Alternative models with more direct paths did not improve model fit, highlighting the roles of the mediators. Empowering leadership is an important resource facilitating entrepreneurial activities through its influence on employees' fit perceptions and resources.

The present study contributes to entrepreneurial behavior literature by showing the importance of job and personal resources in explaining the determinants of employees' entrepreneurial behavior.

The objective of this article is to examine the extent to which the antecedents of entrepreneurial employee activity differ by gender across countries.

Generalised linear multilevel logistic regression is applied to data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) with a sample of 60 countries for the period 2014–2016. This data is complemented with data from the World Governance Indicators (WGI) project and from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Using human capital theory (for individual-related antecedents) and institutional economics (for environmental related antecedents), the results show that the antecedents of entrepreneurial employee activity differ by gender. Specifically, being in contact with other entrepreneurs, and the quality of government regulations condition entrepreneurial employee activity and have a different intensity depending on gender.

This study contributes to the literature about entrepreneurial initiatives and gender by providing insights that add to the literature on why men and women have different entrepreneurial behaviours. In addition, this study also contributes to human capital theory and institutional economics as their role in the relation between entrepreneurial employee activity and gender has not been studied in detail in previous research. Finally, the promotion of female intrapreneurial activity is a key policy for most public bodies and organisations in developed countries.

Time considerations are an important element of entrepreneurial processes in organizations. The current study analyzes the interface between time and entrepreneurship in the firm, examining the relationships between organizational time norms that are shaped by the firm and individual time structures that reflect individual personality differences and how individuals perceive and interpret the organizational time norms. The study seeks to determine if, how, which, and to what extent organizational time norms and individual time structures impact employees’ attitudes toward undertaking entrepreneurial activities and practices related to corporate entrepreneurship in the organization. The chapter develops a model and five hypotheses that are empirically tested in an Israeli manufacturing company that encouraged its employees to pursue entrepreneurial activities within the company. The findings show that, as hypothesized, individual time structures moderate the relationship between organizational time norms and undertaking corporate entrepreneurial activities. It was found that under loose (flexible) organizational time norms, employees with defined time structures generated entrepreneurial proposals. In contrast, employees with vague time structures did not produce entrepreneurial proposals. The results highlight the importance of matching employee time structures with their firm's time norms as a means of promoting corporate entrepreneurial activities.

The current study, which is based on social learning theory and social cognitive theory, intends to investigate the impact of entrepreneurial leadership on employee creativity at both the individual and team levels. In particular, the authors predict a mediating mechanism at both levels: employees’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Further, the authors consider whether the climate of support for innovation is a contextual element affecting the relationship between employees’ perceptions of entrepreneurial leadership and their own entrepreneurial self-efficacy.

The research hypotheses were tested using multilevel structural equation modeling on 191 employees nested in 49 entrepreneurial ventures in China.

The results indicated that entrepreneurial leadership positively correlates with employee creativity at individual level. Moreover, this study found that individual followers’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy partially mediates the association between individual perceptions of entrepreneurial leadership and employee creativity, whereas team members’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy fully mediates the association between team members’ perceptions of supervisors’ entrepreneurial leadership and employee creativity. Further, this research demonstrates the role of team-level climate of support for innovation as a boundary condition that strengthens the effect of entrepreneurial leadership on individual entrepreneurial self-efficacy.

Considering entrepreneurial self-efficacy to be a type of entrepreneurial context-specific self-efficacy, this study presents one of the first empirical examples of the mediating function of entrepreneurial self-efficacy in the association between entrepreneurial leadership and employee creativity. Additionally, this research demonstrates the role of team-level climate of support for innovation as a boundary condition that strengthens the effect of entrepreneurial leadership on individual entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Further, this study provides a methodological contribution by simultaneously assessing all three variables of the mediation process at the individual and team levels: entrepreneurial leadership, entrepreneurial self-efficacy and employee creativity.

Past research has convincingly shown that the more entrepreneurial employees are, the more likely they are to leave the organization and start their own enterprise. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to understand how entrepreneurial employees can be retained in organizations by examining the relationships between work engagement, organizational commitment and entrepreneurial attitude among entry-level employees.

Covariance-based structural equation modeling is used to test the hypothesized relationships by using a survey of 416 employees.

The results of the study indicate that an entrepreneurial attitude significantly and positively contributes to work engagement, although it can divert employee attention regarding the level of commitment. Interestingly, the study findings show that employees will commit to an organization if they have engaged with the company, even if they have a highly entrepreneurial attitude.

This study’s findings are beneficial in understanding the concept of an entrepreneurial attitude and its impact on an organization. For firms to concurrently promote entrepreneurial characteristics and employee commitment, policy and staff practices must ensure the appropriate level of work engagement.

This study proposes new distal antecedent and consequence constructs of the engagement theory related to entrepreneurial attitude orientation and establishes the important link between these constructs with work engagement. The findings originally point to the role of work engagement in maintaining entrepreneurial employees and its effect on organizational commitment.

Employee entrepreneurship has recently become an emerging area of investigation. However, due to the fragmentation of the turnover and entrepreneurship literature, no coherent theoretical framework has been developed to provide an adequate description of the employee entrepreneurial process. The purpose of this paper is to gain a deeper understanding of why and how an employee in an established organization progresses toward starting a new venture by exploring the key decision-making processes during the initial stages of employee entrepreneurship.

This study addresses the following research questions: What are the key decision-making processes during the initial stages of employee entrepreneurship? How are these decisions made, and how do they interact? This study employed a multiple case study approach, which enabled the authors to gain valuable insight into these “what” and “how” questions. The data consist of 28 in-depth employee entrepreneurship cases.

Based on an in-depth study of 28 cases, this study constructs a comprehensive model of the dynamic and interactive decision-making processes that lead to employee entrepreneurship. In particular, the findings reveal that rather than being a linear staged activity, employee entrepreneurship is an inherently iterative process that involves a set of interrelated subdecision-making processes related to turnover, team entrepreneurship and partner recruitment that entail multiple iterations and feedback loops based on an individual's cognitive judgment.

By illustrating and clarifying the importance of the effects of different initial motivations and the attributes of the network in the course of the employee entrepreneurship decision-making process, this study integrates the turnover and entrepreneurship literature and makes significant contributions to the current literature on employee entrepreneurship. Moreover, this study complements research investigating entrepreneurial team formation by providing a detailed understanding of how the lead entrepreneur and the prospective partner make mutual choices during the entrepreneurial team formation process.

This paper analyses entrepreneurial activity within existing organisations. Research tends to limit entrepreneurial behaviour to owner‐managers, corporate senior and middle managers and frequently presents intrapreneurship as a positive phenomenon. This paper seeks to broaden the focus of studies of intrapreneurship and corporate entrepreneurship across all employees in established organisations. In particular it seeks to focus on identifying the entrepreneurial propensity of employees at all levels of the organisation and to consider the positive and negative potential of this propensity on the organisation.

A single case study approach was used involving the analysis of focus groups, employee surveys, company history and financial data to identify the entrepreneurial propensity of employees in the context of an established organisation.

It is identified that employees within the sales function of the business had a greater entrepreneurial propensity in comparison to employees in other departments of the business. It is argued that this was due to a less formal structure in this part of the business and a greater focus on successfully achieving goals. It is further argued that organisational structures, opportunity and needs have to meet individual skills, experience and desire in order to create development opportunities for entrepreneurial organisations.

It is suggested that in considering intrapreneurship, researchers should broaden their focus to include all employees within an organisation.

It is suggested that senior managers should consider the role of entrepreneurial propensity amongst employees and the potential for this to either harm or help develop the business.

This paper adds value to the debate on corporate entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship by considering the role of employees at all organisational levels. Furthermore it acknowledges the positive and negative effects which entrepreneurial propensity may have on the organisation.

The entrepreneurial intention of employees refers to the motive of those who work in a company to resign and start their businesses instead of continuing to be wage earners. It is one of the under-studied aspects of entrepreneurship research. Accordingly, this research paper aimed to find out whether perceived person–organization fit was related to the entrepreneurial intentions of employees and whether perceived workplace ostracism and loneliness mediated this process.

A cross-sectional study was conducted to achieve the purpose. The data were collected through a questionnaire technique from a total of 572 employees. Participants were from 20 different provinces of Turkey and 27 different sectors. Hypotheses were tested through the structural equation modeling technique.

Findings indicated that a lack of perceived person–organization fit resulted in entrepreneurial intention. Workplace ostracism resulted in workplace loneliness. Workplace ostracism and loneliness significantly mediated the relationship between perceived person–organization fit and entrepreneurial intention.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, this study was the first to establish and test the relationships between person–organization fit, entrepreneurial intention, workplace ostracism and loneliness. In this regard, findings can benefit researchers and practitioners in better figuring out why some employees leave their companies to start their businesses while others do not.

Employee improvisation is valuable in seizing opportunities, creating radically new ideas and dealing with unexpected events. It is increasingly important for new ventures in unpredictable environments. However, as an important organizational factor, the mechanism of leadership style on employee improvisation has not been fully explored. Against this background, the purpose of this study is to examine the impact of entrepreneurial leadership on employee improvisation. Specifically, drawing on cognitive-affective processing system framework and regulatory focus theory, the study investigates the dual mediating role of workplace spirituality and positive affect between entrepreneurial leadership and employee improvisation and the moderating role of promotion focus in such relationships.

Using time-lagged data from 327 leader–employee dyads from new ventures in China, the study tests all hypotheses using hierarchical multiple regression and bootstrapping analysis in IBM SPSS 26.0.

The results reveal that entrepreneurial leadership is positively related to employee improvisation, and this link is mediated by workplace spirituality and positive affect. Additionally, moderated path analysis indicates that promotion focus strengthens the direct effect of workplace spirituality and positive affect on employee improvisation and the indirect impact of entrepreneurial leadership on employee improvisation.

The findings also provide some practical suggestions for managers on how to promote employee improvisation. Managers can promote employee improvisation by cultivating their entrepreneurial leadership. The results also constitute valuable information for new ventures in terms of suggesting steps that can be taken to promote employee improvisation in the workplace, particularly in regard to employees' cognition and affect. In addition, personality traits such as promotion focus should also be considered in recruitment.

The study makes an original contribution by showcasing the complex cognitive and affective mechanism of entrepreneurial leadership on employee improvisation. Through the dual mediating role of workplace spirituality and positive affect, the study expands the research results on employee improvisation and enriches the application of cognitive-affective processing system framework in the entrepreneurship field. The study also provides deeper insights into promotion focus research by exploring the boundary conditions of employee improvisation.