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Collective entrepreneurship at Q ualcomm: combining collective and entrepreneurial practices to turn employee ideas into action
Author(s) -
Santos Ricardo,
Spann Martin
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
randd management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.253
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1467-9310
pISSN - 0033-6807
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9310.2011.00660.x
Subject(s) - entrepreneurship , transferability , marketing , revenue , action (physics) , business , entrepreneurial spirit , joint venture , public relations , economics , human capital , accounting , business administration , finance , market economy , political science , physics , quantum mechanics
Successful new products are essential to every company for survival in the marketplace. Especially discontinuous innovations are attractive because they can contribute to revenue growth by creating new businesses or addressing new market segments. Employees and their entrepreneurial spirit are often not fully utilized in a company's innovation activity. This paper presents a coherent methodology to promote corporate entrepreneurship and transform the creative thinking of many employees into valuable products. The application of this methodology at Q ualcomm has resulted in more than 1,100 participants submitting almost 730 new business ideas, resulting in over $60 million in funding for several incubation and joint‐venture projects over the past four years, some of which have already produced innovations that the company values at over $300 million. Further, the paper discusses the limitations of this approach, its transferability to other companies as well as implications for future research.