Developing a Measure of Intrapreneurial Self-Efficacy (ISE): Assessing Employees’ Confidence in their Ability to Create Improvements at Work

Abstract

This study develops and validates an intrapreneurial self-efficacy (ISE) scale. There are two overarching goals: first, to clarify the construct validity of intrapreneurship (often operationalized with behavior) and intrapreneurial self-efficacy (or one’s confidence in performing intrapreneurial behavior) with a definitional analysis, and second, to develop an improved, reliable, and validated measure of ISE that demonstrates discriminant validity from other self-efficacy measures and predicts individual-level intrapreneurial behavior.

Referencing a proposed model of intrapreneurship by Neessen et al. (2019), this study addresses key gaps in the literature by connecting individual-level attitudes of intrapreneurship, such as ISE, to individual-level intrapreneurial behavior. A definitional analysis provided additional framework for construct validity and informed the syntax of 72 items created for the initial item pool. Subject matter experts (SMEs) evaluated the items for content validity and reduced the pool to 40 items. After administering the 40-item ISE measure via survey, factor analysis (with exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and second-order CFA models) found support for a 36-item, five-factor model of ISE which demonstrated high reliability (α = .96) and discriminant validity from entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) and general self-efficacy (GSE).

ISE remained a positive, strong, and significant predictor of intrapreneurial behavior even after controlling for GSE, ESE, personality, job attitudes (job satisfaction and prior knowledge of intrapreneurship), and organizational factors (such as work discretion, time available, management support, and rewards/reinforcement). Practically, this suggests that ISE and its subfactors (innovativeness, proactiveness, risk-taking, opportunity recognition, and networking) uniquely predict intrapreneurial employee behaviors that aim to sustain and create business opportunities for an organization. Future studies could further evaluate and reduce the measure with item-level analysis (such as item-response theory (IRT)) and investigate how ISE and intrapreneurial behavior relate to organization-level performance outcomes such as innovation, growth, and sustained competitive advantage.

This research refines the constructs of ISE and intrapreneurship, develops an improved ISE measure, and investigates the discriminant and criterion-related validity of intrapreneurial self-efficacy, suggesting that ISE is unique from ESE and GSE as both a construct and predictor of intrapreneurial behavior.