The Visible Hand of corporate entrepreneurship in state-owned enterprises: a longitudinal study of the Spanish National
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The Visible Hand of corporate entrepreneurship in state-owned enterprises: a longitudinal study of the Spanish National Postal Operator Águeda Gil-López 1 & Unai Arzubiaga 2 Alfredo De Massis 4,5
& Elena
San Román 3
&
Accepted: 2 October 2020/ # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract This study explores how the corporate entrepreneurship (CE) of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) evolves under varying conditions of state ownership and control, laws and norms, and competence in the market. For this purpose, we present a longitudinal case study focused on the Spanish postal operator Correos using qualitative archival data and interviews. Our results indicate that the willingness and capacity of an SOE to act entrepreneurially depends critically on its degree of autonomy from the state and on the extent to which its legal and market environments increase its dynamism, complexity, and hostility. We also show that the development of CE in an SOE may lead to improved service quality, operational efficiency, and business specialization; facilitate its market positioning; and foster its sustainability through the exploration and exploitation of strategic alliances that can increase its business scope. Keywords State-owned enterprises . Corporate entrepreneurship . Longitudinal study .
Monopolistic market . Market liberalization . Postal industry
Introduction State-owned enterprises (SOEs) are an enduring feature of the economic landscape in both developed and developing countries (European Commission 2016; Girma et al. * Unai Arzubiaga [email protected] Águeda Gil-López [email protected] Elena San Román [email protected] Alfredo De Massis [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal
2009; Gershman et al. 2016). SOEs generate approximately one tenth of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP), represent approximately 20% of global equity market value (Bruton et al. 2015; Economist 2012), and account for a large share of investment and employment worldwide (Clò et al. 2017; OECD 2015). In many countries, SOEs are the main providers of public services, thereby illustrating their influence on both the economy and the everyday lives of citizens (Kroll and Kou 2018). As such, SOEs are key economic players that will remain an influential global force in the near future (Bass and Chakrabarty 2014; PwC 2015). Nevertheless, despite the recognition of SOEs as relevant agents (Liang et al. 2015; Inoue et al. 2013), there is only limited research on this organizational form (González Álvarez and Argothy 2019). Academics focused mainly on SOEs’ ownership structures (Choi et al. 2012), corporate governance (Grossi et al. 2015), efficiency (Zhou et al. 2017), and privatization processes and results (Kroll and Kou 2018; Romero-Martínez et al. 2010; Erakovic and Wilson 2005; Hassard et al. 2002). Surprisingly, prior research overlooked the management issues in this organizational type (Jia
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