Unpacking the Behavioural Drivers of Intrapreneurial Intention in Audit Firms: A Configurational Approach

ABSTRACT Although extensive work links intrapreneurship to individual and contextual factors, little is known about how auditors' self‐perceived leadership styles, as exercised in their supervisory roles, and job satisfaction combine in specific configurations to explain intrapreneurial intention in professional service firms. This study investigates how auditors' transformational, transactional and passive leadership styles interact with job satisfaction to explain their willingness to engage in intrapreneurial behaviour within a Big Four accounting firm. Data were collected from 89 auditors via a self‐administered, cross‐sectional questionnaire. We applied fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) within a set‐theoretic multimethod research (SMMR) design, implemented in R (RStudio) using the SetMethods and smmr packages, together with SPSS. Set‐theoretic findings show that no single condition is necessary; instead, configurations including transformational and transactional leadership styles, in some cases combined with high job satisfaction, are sufficient to explain intrapreneurial intention, whereas configurations including passive‐avoidant leadership explain the absence of intrapreneurial intention. Although audit quality itself is not measured in this study, the link between intrapreneurship and audit effectiveness is invoked here solely as a theoretical background drawn from prior studies. Based on the findings, auditing and other knowledge‐intensive firms should avoid passive leadership and invest in leadership development (transformational and transactional with contingent rewards) and human resource practices that increase job satisfaction. Such initiatives can help nurture internal innovation capacity, improve retention and foster sustained intrapreneurial behaviour, with potential positive spillovers across the professional services ecosystem.