Uncertainty Avoidance and Intrapreneurship: A Four-Level Investigation

Abstract

Although uncertainty avoidance is identified as an important concept for understanding intrapreneurial intentions, empirical findings have not been consistent in portraying a broader picture of how uncertainty avoidance shapes intrapreneurial intentions. This study bridges this gap through a four-level conceptual model of the role of uncertainty avoidance in the formation of employees’ intrapreneurial intentions, differentiating among unit- and country-level uncertainty avoidance. Using the established relationship between behavioral control and intentions, we consider how employee creativity and self-efficacy influence intrapreneurial intentions. Following the person-environment fit paradigm and the resulting fit traditions of complementarity and supplementarity, we narrow in on how these processes operate within specific (stimulating or inhibiting) cultural settings in terms of uncertainty avoidance at both the unit and country levels. Using data from 787 employees on the first level nested into 73 units on the second level, 19 organizations on the third level, and eight countries on the fourth level, study shows evidence for a beneficial interplay between unit-level uncertainty avoidance and creativity or self-efficacy when there is a supplementary or complementarity fit. The interplay between behavioral and contextual factors is negative, however, when neither type of fit applies. Finally, country-level uncertainty avoidance seems to be irrelevant to intrapreneurial intentions.