Why change a winning concept? : A qualitative study on organizational structure and entrepreneurial orientation within one large company

Sammanfattning: The competition on the business market is constantly growing among entrepreneurial organizations. Competitive advantages and strategies is a must in order to survive the environmental triggers of change. One of those strategies is to increase the entrepreneurial activity. However, entrepreneurial adaption is a phenomenon that is represented by continuous change. It is rather an on-going strategy for organizations than a conclusion or a settling point. The entrepreneurial activity needs to flourish through the whole organization i.e. in the people, groups and hierarchical levels. Therefore, other organizational elements affect in how successful an organization can operate in an entrepreneurial way. Organizational structure is one of those elements, which not only lay the foundation for the operation but also affect other organizational factors. Hence, organizations require the knowledge on which factors that can impact the entrepreneurial activity, before it is even essential to change the strategies. This qualitative research aims to gain knowledge in how organizational structure affects the entrepreneurial orientation. Three different dimensions, of both organizational structure and entrepreneurial orientation, are going to be acknowledged in order to measure the elements and find a relation between them. This will not just enhance the understanding of the area, but also fulfil the thesis purpose and research question. The focus of the study lies within one large entrepreneurial organization, namely Scandic Hotels that operate in an industry with an immense competition, which do not possesses the most evident entrepreneurial business market. The empirical findings are based on semi-structured interviews, which will be analysed in conjunction with the theoretical frame of references. Further, the empirical findings are thus used to analyse the research results to then answer the purpose of this thesis. The study showed that the organizational structure at Scandic Hotels is represented by high complexity, formalization and centralization. Besides that, the main structural approach is that the operation is run by a concept driven strategy. Through the analysis it was shown that these findings affected the entrepreneurial orientation within the organization. The entrepreneurial dimensions of innovation, proactiveness and risk- taking proved degrees that were considerably lower. On this basis, the study finds that organizational structure has an impact on entrepreneurial orientation. The relation between the dimensions is highly complex and not a clear line i.e. they all affect each other in some matter. However, a structural change is difficult for a large organization as Scandic Hotels. But there are structural strategies that can be made to increase the entrepreneurial orientation through the whole organization.