A journey through the conceptual evolution of corporate entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial orientation: a comparative approach

Abstract

Corporate entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial orientation are widely studied concepts in the field of entrepreneurship related to the ability of established firms to innovate and adapt to change. The evolution of the literature has taken place in different areas of knowledge and disciplines, giving rise to the undifferentiated use of these terms, thus limiting the possibilities of generalizing the results. For this reason, several authors have established the need to further conceptualize these terms and the existing relationships between different constructs in order to consolidate and advance knowledge. The literature review shows that both concepts are closely interrelated and that, while corporate entrepreneurship has been used as a construct focused on the activities carried out by the firm resulting in innovation, business creation or renewal, entrepreneurial orientation has been approached as a behavior that characterizes the firm that has entrepreneurial initiative based on the exhibition of a predisposition towards innovation, risk taking, and proactivity. The aim of this study is to analyze the evolution of the thematic areas of interest of both constructs through the use of the most frequent keywords to characterize and differentiate both concepts. Through the comparative bibliometric analysis of the keywords, we aim to answer the question are the two concepts really the same, or if they are differentiated parts of the same phenomenon, and to contribute to the reduction of the dispersion generated in the attention of researchers in order to advance in the strengthening of their conceptual structure.