PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify the variables influencing the implementation of corporate entrepreneurship (CE) in an emerging market context. The empirical research study identifies the characteristics of internal environment to enhance corporate entrepreneurship (CE) in firms operating in an emerging economy, such as India.Design/methodology/approachThe authors studied a sample size of 59 firms all over India and measured the internal environment for enhancing CE with the tool adapted from Hornsbyet al.In total, 381 responses were collected. Using regression tool, the authors measured the impact of these variables on CE outcomes.FindingsIt was found that the critical variables with respect to Indian context included risk‐taking propensity, management support, work discretion, rewards, organization flexible boundaries and time availability and intelligence generation and dissemination for CE success.Research limitations/implicationsFurther confirmatory research needs to be conducted to establish the stability of these factors. The results need to be tested on a larger sample size. Moreover, the different categories of managers, i.e. top, middle and lower middle management groups, may be targeted as samples.Practical implicationsCE would give leverage to companies to compete by enhancing their competitiveness in emerging economies. Therefore, it would be critical to study the role of CE in enhancing the competitiveness of the firms operating in the Indian economy.Originality/valueEarlier studies have not included two important parameters, including intelligence generation and dissemination as drivers of CE even in the developed country context.