Creating entrepreneurial employees in traditional service sectors: The role of coaching and self-efficacy

Increasingly companies seek to enhance employee entrepreneurial behaviour. In this study we explore how coaching first reduces role conflicts associated with acting entrepreneurial and at the same time improving efficiency and reducing failure and secondly increases the entrepreneurial self-efficacy of employees. Building on previous conceptual and empirical studies on intrapreneurship, social psychology and human resource management we formulate several hypotheses concerning the relationship between self-efficacy, coaching and entrepreneurial behaviour of account managers that are tested in the context of a large service organization operating in the financial sector. In doing so we confirm and extend our insights on entrepreneurial behaviour in existing companies.