Employees’ decision to participate in corporate venturing: A conjoint experiment of financial and non-financial motivations

Abstract

This paper is a replication and extension of a prior study that examines the factors influencing employees’ willingness to participate in corporate ventures. We use a conjoint experiment to build knowledge surrounding the impact of motivating factors beyond financial profit as well as the role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Our replication results largely support prior findings and indicate that the extra effort required for participating in a corporate venture is the most important factor driving employees’ decision. Our replication also extends prior findings in two critical ways. First, it shows that independence is essential in developing a comprehensive understanding of the decision-making process for participating in a corporate venture. Second, it demonstrates that entrepreneurial self-efficacy influences the effects of employment risk and expected success on the relationship between profit sharing and employees’ willingness to participate in a corporate venture. Our results suggest that individual-level differences provide additional explanatory power and a fuller understanding of the employees’ decision to participate in corporate ventures. They also yield important practical implications for managers who wish to motivate their employees towards the corporate venturing path.