The resource view of strategy holds internal resources as a source of unique and inimitable competitive advantage. This strategic perspective, applied to Human Resource Management (HRM), suggests that aligning HRM sub-systems with a strategy will produce behaviors and outcomes consistent with the strategy. A current popular strategy attempts to foster intrapreneurial behavior among employees by seeking breakthrough performance and product innovation. A survey of corporate executives shows that infusing HRM sub-systems with entrepreneurial thrusts will produce more intrapreneurial behaviors and greater organization outcomes.

INTRODUCTION

A resource-based perspective of organizations holds that rare and non-imitatable resources create sustainable competitive advantage (Barney, 1991, 1995). While competitors may imitate technology, economies of scale and scope, and other resources traditionally used in strategy studies, complex social structures such as human resource management systems and workforce culture are difficult to copy (Barney, 1986; Becker & Gerhart, 1996). From this perspective, human resource systems and strategies may be especially important sources of sustained competitive advantage (Lado & Wilson, 1994; Pfeffer, 1994; Wright & MacMahan, 1992).

In an environment characterized by rapid technological change, increased flows of information, rapidly shifting customer demands and loyalties, and fierce global competition, firms find traditional approaches to creating and implementing strategic plans inadequate to deliver success. Firms must now improve performance by reducing costs and increasing quality and providing innovative products and processes and increasing their speed to market. Drucke (1984) identified these characteristics as entrepreneurship within the corporation (intrapreneurship) and as essential for organizational success in the new environment. For this article we will use the term "entrepreneurship" for firm-level variables and "intrapreneurship" for individual behaviors within the firm.

Yet. despite this apparent need for increased entrepreneurship, Rule and Irwin (1988) found that about half of senior managers are dissatisfied with current levels of entrepreneurship in their firms. Because many traditional management practices appear as obstacles to corporate entrepreneurship (McMillian, Block & Narashima, 1986; Sykes & Block, 1989), early solutions called for creating havens for individuals or small groups by sheltering them and excusing them from the formal rules of the organization (Pinchot, 1985; Peters & Waterman, 1983). More recent formulations call for generating entrepreneurship as an element of corporate strategy including specialized human resource management systems to support intrapreneurial behaviors and organization outcomes (Covin & Slevin, 1991; Fombrum & Harris, 1993; Herron, 1991; Stevenson & Jarillo 1990).

This study follows this process by embedding the exploration of corporate entrepreneurship within the context of strategic HRM. From this context, entrepreneurship appears as an clement of corporate strategy. That strategy then calls for HRM systems that facilitate and encourage intrapreneurial behaviors and entrepreneurial outcomes. A survey of corporate executives explores the empirical grounding of the model. A discussion of the results suggests implications for researchers and user applications.

STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Strategic HRM has been studied from three perspectives (Delery & Doty, 1996)--universalistic, contingency and configurational. The universalistic (or "best practices") studies look for particular policies or practices that are more effective than others and result in gains for all...