Corporate governance and corporate entrepreneurship in different organizational forms

In today’s society, products and services are offered in a number of different organizational forms: leisure activities are offered by not-for-profit associations or privately held firms, waste disposal services by local government corporations or administrations, manufactured products and services by listed corporations or state-owned corporations. Independent of organizational form and type of products and services offered, the long-term survival and success of the organization should benefit from a governance system that supports the exploration of novel opportunities that are in line with the purpose of the organization. As such, an intertwinement between a governance system of an organization and the exploration of novel opportunities for the advancement of the organization is suggested. Aspects of governance can be found in the literature of corporate governance (e.g., Shleifer and Vishny, 1997) and tend to have a disciplining emphasis. Aspects of the exploration of novel opportunities can be found in the literature of entrepreneurship (Covin and Lumpkin, 2011; Zahra et al., 2000) and tend to have an enabling emphasis. The starting point for an intertwinement between governance and entrepreneurship is that organizations are present to serve the interests of the holders of property rights (sometimes diffusedly termed owners, members or, in agency theory, principals) and as such, entrepreneurship should be in accordance with and aligned to these interests. Corporate governance mechanisms serve as a way to align the interests of property rights holders, for example, as in agency theory, to align the interests of the principals and the agents (Schleifer and Vischny, 1997). Therefore, corporate governance mechanisms appear to be a relevant starting point for considering the influence on entrepreneurship at the organizational level, hereafter termed corporate entrepreneurship. Such an intertwinement is moreover in line with researchers’ identification of interesting and insufficiently explored topics (e.g., Caruana et al., 2002; Corbett et al., 2013; Lacetera, 2001; Phan et al., 2009).