Exploring Intrapreneurship among Employees: A Case Study of Alibaba’s Vmate Project

Abstract

Nowadays, 21st century, business innovation is the direction for each company which needs to stay focused on and in recent years intrapreneurship has been a major factor for many medium to large companies to survive and win in today's highly competitive market. The purpose of this independent study is to analyze the factors affecting intrapreneurship at Alibaba through the Vmate project by in-depth interviews. Most of the employees in Alibaba understand the basic concept of intrapreneurship and basic characteristics of intrapreneurship. Somehow, they still need to comprehend the difference between intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship. The traits of insider-outsider, implicitness, inspiration, commitment, creativity, knowledge, risk tolerance capability, sense of responsibility, proactiveness were found among Alibaba employees to develop the intrapreneurship inside the company.