@article{eeb34ee385864bccaae9e94c985c32f0,
title = "Converting military technology through corporate entrepreneurship",
abstract = "The main purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between entrepreneurial behavior of employees and defense technology conversion (the use of military technologies for products aimed at the civilian market). The study was carried out at a hi-tech Israeli defense organization in which management encouraged employees to engage in internal entrepreneurial R&D activities aimed at the civilian markets. Surprisingly, our findings show that these management efforts were followed by an increase of the entrepreneurial proposals by the employees. However, the increase in the entrepreneurial activities was aimed at the defense rather than the civilian markets. The explanation for this result may be rooted in the negative relationship between entrepreneurial behavior and the level of effectiveness of perceived barriers to defense conversion. Two conditions are necessary for a successful attempt at defense conversion through corporate entrepreneurship. (a) Top management must ensure that employees and middle management are convinced of the importance of defense conversion to their organization, its effectiveness and feasibility, (b) Top management must convince employees of its commitment to the process of defense conversion. Lip service to defense conversion is certainly ineffective, and sometimes even counter-productive.",
keywords = "Corporate entrepreneurship, Defense conversion, Defense industries, Managerial attitudes, R&D projects",
author = "Israel Azulay and Miri Lerner and Asher Tishler",
note = "Funding Information: The understanding that “the company specializes in military markets and should continue that way” is the item with the highest weight (largest value in the vector b ) in the set of items describing employees{\textquoteright} attitudes towards defense conversion, indicating that the employees strongly believe that the organization should retain a major focus on the military market. Moreover, the employees{\textquoteright} entrepreneurial behavior is significantly related to the beliefs that “all attempts at defense conversion in Israel and abroad have failed”, that “business considerations do not allow development and production of civilian products”, and that “… the company should focus only on the military market”, which are the next three most important items in the set of items describing employees{\textquoteright} attitudes towards defense conversion. “Enlisting support from outside the organization” is the item with the highest weight (largest value in the vector a ) in the score that describes employees{\textquoteright} entrepreneurial behavior, which is characteristic of defense-related corporate entrepreneurship. That is, projects of this type are normally financed mostly by external sources (the Ministry of Defense, the Israel Defense Forces, foreign defense forces, etc.) which also participate in setting operational requirements. Clearly, enlisting the external financial support is critical to the success of the project. The item “forming an intra-organizational coalition”, which is also known to be critical to the success of any military or civilian project, is the second in importance for entrepreneurial behavior of the employees. “Presenting proposals for a new military product” and “securing procurement budgets”, both of which are related to the military market are the next two important items describing corporate entrepreneurship behavior (relative to attitudes towards defense conversion). ",
year = "2002",
doi = "10.1016/S0048-7333(01)00117-2",
language = "אנגלית",
volume = "31",
pages = "419--435",
journal = "Research Policy",
issn = "0048-7333",
publisher = "Elsevier",
number = "3",
}
