Corporate Entrepreneurship: Innovation at the Intersection between Creative Destruction and Controlled Adaptation

In spite of a growing body of knowledge on the importance of innovation and changeability, firms still experience great difficulties in being continuously corporate entrepreneurial. This article addresses reasons for such difficulties. Building on a conceptual discussion, the article first identifies seemingly opposing forces found at the core of corporate entrepreneurship. These forces are in the article described in terms of ‘creative destruction' and ‘controlled adaptation'. Both forces are identified as being essential to successful corporate entrepreneurship, but set very different agendas, which can be expected to give rise to tension. Secondly, a case study of a Danish high-tech SME is introduced in order to identify patterns of practices which are potentially supportive of the creation of balance between the seemingly opposing forces. Based on this, the article introduces a framework for discussion on the two forces and the consequences to how they are approached managerially.