Enhancing managerial intrapreneurship: investigating the influence of psychological capital, well-being and work–life balance

Purpose This paper investigates intrapreneurship from the perspective of positive organizational behavior. The research sheds light on the relationship between psychological capital (PsyCap) and the managers' intrapreneurial intention (INI) by looking into the mechanisms through which positive states influence INI and testing the mediation effect of well-being (WB) and work–life balance. Design/methodology/approach The study uses confirmatory factor analysis of the structural equation modeling to test the proposed model and mediation analysis to test the hypothesized relationships against data from a survey of 211 managers. Findings Results show that PsyCap strongly influences managers' INI. PsyCap strongly influences work–life balance and WB, while the latter mediates the direct relationship between PsyCap and INI. Originality/value This study is the first to investigate intrapreneurship from the perspective of positive organizational behavior. It contributes to the literature by providing theoretical and empirical evidence of the importance of PsyCap in increasing INI. Moreover, this study is the first in a non-Western, post-socialist, post-conflict country and could provide valuable insights into similar contexts.