25 Difference Between Intrapreneur and Entrepreneur: Entrepreneur and Intrapreneur, both play a vital role in the growth and expansion of the business. But both the terms are not the same clearly and responsible for different sort of work for an organization. To set the ball rolling, the first term coined was “Entrepreneur” which means a person who has a lot of ideas about their business, manages the business and always ready to take high risks that are associated with the business.
Also See: Ecopreneurship Features, Companies: Who is an Ecopreneur?
From the last few decades, a new breed of entrepreneurs has been formed and an essential part of organizations. The newly introduced term is called “Intrapreneurs”. But they only authorized to work within the limits of an existing business enterprise. In the 1980s, Gifford Pinchot described Intrapreneur as the top executive in any huge organizations motivated and encouraged to adopt new ideas and transform the same ideas into different products as well as services through the research and development activities within the boundaries of an enterprise.
The well-known term “Intrapreneur” is no more than an employee who has certain authorities as well as financial support from an established business enterprise. The person has the responsibility to bring innovation in the business world and produce innovative products and services according to the demand of the market and the taste of the customer.
Both entrepreneur and Intrapreneur are the innovators as well as leaders. So, what you think is the difference between Entrepreneurs and Intrapreneurs? Is the entrepreneur wearing the suit and the sneakers for Intrapreneur?
Difference Between Intrapreneur and Entrepreneur
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Origin
Firstly, the term “Entrepreneur” coined in the early time of the 18th century by Richard Cantillon when he used the word in his book “Essay on the Nature of Commerce” published in 1755. He used the term to denote a person, as a risk-taker, who made a product at a certain price and sell the same at a higher price.
Also See: Scalable Startup Entrepreneurship: Definition and Examples
The word “Intrapreneur” first introduced in the year 1980 when a book was published by Management Consultants Gifford and Elizabeth Pinchot. The book described Intrapreneurs as dreamers who take initiative for producing innovative technologies of any sort, within an organization. The term is an integral part of the business world from decades and most popular in developed nations such as the United States of America.
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Meaning
An Entrepreneur is a person who gets the idea for the establishment of a business or venture, ready to tackle with a lot of risks and make the innovative product more demanding, not only to bring the product or service in reality.
On the other side, the Intrapreneur is also a person who is also an entrepreneur but within the boundaries of an organization. The person is an employee of the business who is responsible for bringing the innovation as well as creativity in the upcoming products, services and projects. Moreover, that person is also authorized to revamp the processes, flow of work and also, the system to convert them all into a successful venture of an industry.
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Personal Traits
An entrepreneur has the freedom to do the work and try various things at the same point in time. No imagination barrier is here and the person can think beyond the limits. The person is not well-organized and not able to follow the discipline needed to be Conscientiousness. But the focus must be on their product. Extraversion is significant for the entrepreneur as there is a need to manage umpteen things at a single time and communicating regularly with people. So, they can keep an eye over their rivals.
Whereas the Intrapreneur having their boundaries and face many problems in approval before the implementation of some ideas. He or she has to be more responsible as compared to an entrepreneur but there is no link with the success or failure of the enterprise. One needs to be disciplined and good at organizing themselves. An intrapreneur needs to be keenness and always looking for feedback within the enterprise. He has to be dynamic and improvements should be on top.
It’s a jungle and it becomes tough to survive over there for the persons.
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Motivation
What made keep the entrepreneur going on their path to success? Though a lot of obstacles are there that de-motivates the person to make an understanding between the entrepreneur and their motives. But still, four factors contribute to motivates the entrepreneur to stay connected with the path of success such as:
- Risk-taking
- Accomplishment
- Control
- Creativity
Moreover, the intrinsic and extrinsic factors of motivation play an important role in understanding the concept of the Entrepreneur and the motivation. The way of working impacts the overall factors that motivate an entrepreneur like it includes some personal characteristics such as flexibility, aggressiveness, adaptability, speed and innovativeness.
Also See: Some Major Advantages of Entrepreneurship
On the contrary, motivation factor differs in Intrapreneur and Entrepreneur. The factors that influence the motivation the Intrapreneur are entrepreneurship, professionalism as well as leadership also. In addition to this, an Intrapreneur is motivated with the additional perks as well as incentives apart from the salary. Besides this, the regular increment in the salary year by year encourages the employees to improve their performance for the success of the business.
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Dependency
The dependency of the Entrepreneur lies in the operations of the business enterprise. The entrepreneur is fully dependent and never for others as well as he is the only boss. But an intrapreneur is dependent on the entrepreneur or owner of the organization as he works for the corporation under the defined rules and codes of conduct related to the business.
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Core aim
An entrepreneur aims to innovate all the products, services and projects which are of social as well as economic value. On the other side, to incline the competitive strength is the main motive of the Intrapreneur. Moreover, maintain the sustainability of the market of the business enterprise.
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Investment
It is wholly and solely the responsibility of the Entrepreneur to generate the funds for the business and raise capital from time to time for new business industries. However, Intrapreneur has no issues with the management of investment required for production and manufacture. Further, the owner is only responsible for raising funds according to the needs of the business.
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Risk-taker
Although both are risk-takers, the bigger one is the Entrepreneur. Moreover, they recruit manpower according to the talent and maintain the position of the business. The whole risk involved in the business is only for the Entrepreneur and 100 per cent of loss incurred must be managed by the owner.
On the other side, less risk is attached to the Intrapreneur as he risks with the money of the Entrepreneur. They don’t have the same level of authority and freedom as Entrepreneur like choose the team and the type of leadership they want. Due to the level of freedom, it has proven that they do not tackle the same level of risk.
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Primary Motives
Being independent, satisfaction of their own and gain some monetary rewards is the primary aim of an Entrepreneur and the Intrapreneur get a fixed by advancement and promotion.
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Time frame
As we know the Entrepreneur is free to do anything, so there is no time-bound for that person. He or she can do anything to earn profit and interact with anyone, anytime. However, the Intrapreneur is an employee of the organization and bound by the timetable of the business enterprise according to the day and night shift. So, the time frame is here for Intrapreneur, not for Entrepreneur.
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Mind-set
The principle for an entrepreneur is that one gets some opportunities to earn a profit when there is a problem. On the other side, the problems are considered to be a threat by the Intrapreneur for the process and operations of the business.
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Network
As an entrepreneur, you are working alone and you don’t have any network. If the business fails, then it is your failure. However, the Intrapreneur is supported by a group of people who always supports him. An intrapreneur is not the owner of the company and never lost everything.
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Vision
The visionary person is the Entrepreneur only and he not only identifies the risk attached with the business but also analyzes the market problems which may come in future and have bad impact on the stability of the business. He always thinks about the growth of the business. While the Intrapreneur only identifies the risk associated with the confines of the business and not market as a whole.
Also See: Factors Affecting Entrepreneurship: Economic, Social & Cultural
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Team Player or Hustler
Do you get that? Here are some of the character designation lies in each of the roles. An entrepreneur always run the business alone and tackle all the related problems by themselves only. Moving further, they also represent in different styles such as the Hustler, the visionary, the innovator, the machine, the strategist and the prodigy.
However, a team leader is the Intrapreneur and the one who works with a group of people. All the plan and strategies are applied by the Intrapreneur along with a team.
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Resources
The availability of resources is very clean and clear. As an Entrepreneur, it is in the hands of the owner to provide all the needed and necessary resources for running the business smoothly. Resources require investment and it is always done by the Entrepreneur. However, the Intrapreneur has to utilize the resources in a good manner for the production as well as operations of the business enterprise.
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Enterprise
As the name suggests, the Entrepreneur establishes a new business organization for running the business. But the Intrapreneur become the part of the business which is already set-up by the owner.
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Responsibility
The first and foremost responsibility of a business enterprise is to create a professional and leading image of the business in the market. On the other hand, the Intrapreneur helps to apply all the innovation into the products, services and different projects. The redesigning and advancement in the business is the authority of the Intrapreneur.
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Innovation
The decision of Innovation is not an Entrepreneur’s cup of tea. All such decisions are taken by the Intrapreneur and he always follows the framework of four factors such as Purpose, Principles, People and practices.
| Factor | Intrapreneurship | What it accelerates? |
| Purpose | New Products and services along with the recruitment | It speeds up the marketing process and accessibility to the technology. |
| Principles | Leadership, decentralization and orientation | Open new platforms for innovation. |
| People | Training and competencies related to the innovation. | Flexibility and business acumen. |
| Practices | Incentive programmes and celebrating failures. | Consulting, access to the client and mentorship. |
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Market Research
In-depth research on the market is done by the Entrepreneur and they run the business according to the demand in the market. All such research process is associated with the entrepreneur. On the other side, the Intrapreneur make it sure that all the demand and innovation is applied to all the processes and operations of the business.
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Supervision
Overall supervision of the business is done by the Entrepreneur to ensure the smooth running of the business. Moreover, he makes sure that all the operations related to the process of production are running effectively and efficiently. However, the Intrapreneur has to look over the team only and the production of the products in an innovative and advanced way.
Also See: The Role and Importance of Entrepreneurship
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Approach
The Entrepreneur has gone with the intuitive approach as they can grab the situation with no reasons. The person has the sixth sense. But the Intrapreneur works on a restorative approach.
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Decision-making
The flexibility of taking decisions associated with an entrepreneur and regulates all the rules and regulations by him only. But the Intrapreneur is not permitted to take any decision related to the business without any prior discussion with the owner of the organization.
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Status
Both the Entrepreneur and the Intrapreneur have a different status in the organization. An entrepreneur is the owner of the business as he or she set up the business on their own. But the Intrapreneur is only the employee of the organization and works on a salary basis. But the company belongs to the Entrepreneur only.
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Tasks
It does not matter how large or small the business is, the Entrepreneur has to deal with all the related tasks and no particular designation or role or responsibility is assigned. However, the Intrapreneur is only associated with the broad vision of the business and only responsible for managing the big tasks. Moreover, the other team members will be only responsible for small tasks such as production and protection.
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Rewards
The Entrepreneur will decide whether he or she wants to discuss the new rewards and success rewards with the employees. But an intrapreneur sometimes receives the applause from the owner by sharing the innovative ideas which are lucrative for the business enterprise.
Also See: What is the Origin of Entrepreneurship?
It has been noticed in the last few decades that the demand for innovation is increasing day by day and people started giving more importance to the same. Due to advancement in technology, the world is changing by leaps and bounds. It increases competition among various organizations. So, innovation is must if the business wants to grow with innovative products and services.
So it was all about the differences between intrapreneur and entrepreneur, if you liked them then please share it with your friends. Or we you have any doubt then write in the comment section below.
