Developing corporate entrepreneurship in the National Health Service: a study of a large East Midlands trust

Johnson, Dyneshia A. (2016) Developing corporate entrepreneurship in the National Health Service: a study of a large East Midlands trust. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.

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Abstract

The goal of this dissertation is to motivate a cognitive based view of corporate entrepreneurship (CE) propagation. In doing so, it advocates that the literature requires a more in-depth view of how organisational members choose to instigate or participate in entrepreneurial behaviour within the organisation confines. In addition to what organisational contextual factors bear on this decision making process. As such I move away from the top-down organisational level of analysis perspective that dominates the field and re-focus on the ‘individual in CE.’ To achieve this, I draw on socio-cognitive perspectives and the growing body of work on cognitive mechanisms in entrepreneurship research (Baron, 1998). Specifically, I utilise the entrepreneurial cognition entrepreneurial intentions (EI) as the best predictor of entrepreneurial behaviour and the EI formation model Shapero’s Entrepreneurial Event (SEE), (Krueger, 1993; Shapero, 1982) to understand how organisational members choose to act entrepreneurially.

This research is interpretive in nature. A qualitative single case study with 3 embedded units and two data collection phases was employed to explore the Large East Midlands Trust (LEMT), a large acute hospital in the publically funded National Health Service (NHS). LEMT represents an unconventional setting for CE research, which is traditionally conducted in the private sector. However, the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis has compelled public institutions such as the NHS to become more entrepreneurial (DH, 2010; Darzi, 2008). The main analytical techniques employed are within-case and cross-unit pattern analysis to elicit findings on this unusual organisational context and how its members are moved from CE inaction to CE action.

The findings of this research indicate that top-down inducements do not move LEMT’s organisational members to CE action. Primarily, because there is an underlying cognitive infrastructure represented by organisational member’s multiple social identities: (1) NHS identity and (2) professional identity that impede the emergence of CE. Probing these NHS and professional identities further revealed them to be resistant to change. However, my findings indicate that if interrupted by a precipitating event, professional identity can be reformed via identity work processes, which facilitate the emergence of CE activity.

Item Type: Thesis (University of Nottingham only) (PhD)
Supervisors: Hughes, Mathew
Ucbasaran, Deniz
Lockett, Andy
Keywords: Corporate entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial intentions, healthcare entrepreneurship, public sector entrepreneurship, identity, identity tension, identity work,
Subjects: H Social sciences > HB Economic theory
Faculties/Schools: UK Campuses > Faculty of Social Sciences, Law and Education > Nottingham University Business School
Item ID: 33672
Depositing User: Johnson, Dyneshia
Date Deposited: 18 Jul 2016 06:40
Last Modified: 13 Oct 2017 21:44
URI: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/33672

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