The Role of Employee’s Human Capital and the Work Environment on the Creation of Organizational Spin-Offs: Evidence from Spain

Abstract

Previous studies have recognized the relevance of certain individual (generic and specific human capital) and organizational (work environment) factors in the creation of new ventures from and for an existing organization. The objective of this exploratory study is to understand the roles of employee human capital and the work environment on the creation of organizational spin-offs. Adopting the human capital and the corporate entrepreneurship approaches, a conceptual framework was proposed and tested with data from the 2012 Spanish Adult Population Survey (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, GEM). Due to the nature of the data and research objective, a rare event model was used for the analysis. Our results provide evidence about the relevant roles of specific human capital (entrepreneurship educational training) and the work environment (job autonomy) on the propensity that an employee becomes an intrapreneur and leads a spin-off “from” and “for” their employer. We also show that a stronger moderation effect of job autonomy takes place in the relationship between entrepreneurship education and organizational spin-off creation. In general, these results would help employees, top managers, and policy makers take into account the relevance of these individual and organizational factors when defining their strategic decisions/planning.