Study of Intrapreneurship in Qatar: An Empirical Study and Structural Model

Abstract

Intrapreneurship has provided great opportunities for organizations that have practiced it in different countries. Intrapreneurship is a process by which employees within an organization take the lead in producing new products or services through innovation. These employees use the company’s resources to turn unique ideas into products or services that are profitable to the organization. This research aims to study intrapreneurship in different organizational settings in Qatar, including government, semi-government, and private organizations. The purpose of the study is to understand and explore intrapreneurship in Qatar and to discuss the outcomes and prerequisites for intrapreneurship. The study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, a questionnaire-based survey was conducted. The study sample included 110 employees working in Qatar in governmental organizations, semi-governmental organizations, and private organizations. Analysis of the data was done using SPSS software to test correlation and conduct an independent sample t-test. Then, in phase two of the study, Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) was used to develop a hierarchy-based model to rank the barriers that affect intrapreneurship. The results of the questionnaire-based study show a significant positive correlation between the prerequisites and outcomes of intrapreneurship. Moreover, the public sector had a lack of support for intrapreneurship as compared to the private sector. The results of the tests showed a significant positive correlation between intrapreneurship and perceived customer satisfaction. In addition, there was a significant positive correlation between intrapreneurship and job satisfaction. The ISM model is composed of four levels of twelve different barriers that affect intrapreneurship, with the most important barriers or root causes at the bottom of the hierarchy-based model. Such a model could help managers to develop suitable strategies to eliminate these root causes and improve overall support for intrapreneurship in Qatari organizations.