Entrepreneurs vs. Intrapreneurs : A comparative study about motivation factors of entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs

Sammanfattning: Entrepreneurs and the components that motivates them not to give up when facing obstacles have been the focus in many different studies. There have also been some studies which aims at connecting the concepts of intrapreneurs and motivation. However, we found a gap in the research which compares Swedish entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs focusing on their motivational factors. Therefore, this study aims to fulfill the found research gap through looking deeper into the intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors of both entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. This led up to the following formulation of the research question: What are the main differences in motivation factors between successful entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs in Sweden? To answer this question, a qualitative study was conducted with the focus on gaining more understanding on what intrinsic and extrinsic factors motivates entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. Participants in the study were found based on criteria such as working in Sweden and being considered as successful through nominations or rewards. Data collection was done through using semi-structured interviews with five entrepreneurs and five intrapreneurs with the focus on finding motivational factors and typical personal characteristics related to their line of work. Since we found similar motivational factors in our chosen theories, it was decided that they would be used in the interviews. These factors were; Monetary reward, Challenges, Training, Acknowledgement, Affiliation, Power and Accomplishment.  Results show that the entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs have differences in their motivational factors both among the individuals within each title, as well as between the titles. The motivational factors found were paired with definitions of factors from the theories. Personal characteristics of entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs were also found and connected to theories about personal characteristics. The analyzed answers of intrapreneurs’ and entrepreneurs’ motivational factors were compared against each other to see if the motivational factors differ between entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. The conclusion of this study is that for the extrinsic motivational factors, the entrepreneurs are more motivated by monetary rewards than the intrapreneurs and challenges motivates the intrapreneurs more than the entrepreneurs. For the intrinsic factors, power was more motivating for the entrepreneurs and more intrapreneurs saw acknowledgement as motivating. The factors which had no differences were concluded to not being related to being an entrepreneur or intrapreneur.