Factors influencing middle managers’ ability to contribute to corporate entrepreneurship

Corporate entrepreneurship (CE) has emerged as an important strategy for hotels in recent years, allowing rejuvenation of internal processes and activities for improved performance. Although CE is instigated by senior management, middle managers carry out their instructions and hence have a critical role in its success. This conceptual paper evaluates the antecedents or factors that may impact on the middle manager's entrepreneurial role. Hotel middle managers are expected to be more entrepreneurial, but the findings indicate that centralised structures, although ensuring standardisation of systems and processes, result in a ‘top-down’ approach to leadership and decision making. The middle manager has difficulty communicating issues and ideas to senior management, affecting their ability to be innovative and to take risks on behalf of the hotel. Organisations appear not to be learning from their experiences, with a negative impact on performance.