Gaupp, ChristinaChristinaGaupp2023-04-132023-04-132022-09-19https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/108243In the 21st century, increasing dynamics in the corporate environment challenge corporations to master continuous and proactive change to stay competitive. Finance Business Partners and their intrapreneurial behavior are postulated as central to support organizations navigating this environment and executing against their digital strategies. However, scholarly research, mainly relying on qualitative studies, and anecdotal evidence from practice, suggests that establishing the Finance Business Partner role is challenging. At the same time, detailed non-anecdotal accounts from contemporary organizations are scarce, and there seems to be a void in academic research explicitly examining the phenomenon of intrapreneurial behavior in the Finance Business Partner role. The present thesis investigates the status-quo of the Finance Business Partner role in contemporary organizations to create a more fine-grained understanding of the role in corporate reality. Furthermore, it explores and analyses relevant contextual and individual-level factors impacting intrapreneurial behavior in the Finance Business Partner role to advance both academia and practice. We collaborated with three multi-national enterprises considered as advanced in institutionalizing the Finance Business Partner role over the course of three years. We employed an explorative sequential mixed-methods design comprised of three phases: A first explorative qualitative phase relying on 11 semi-structured interviews with Senior Finance Leaders and Finance Business Partners and analyzed with the thematic analysis method. A second quantitative phase employed a standardized online survey distributed to Finance Business Partners (n = 190) and analyzed with a variance-based higher-order structural equation model and multi-group analyses using SmartPLS. The third qualitative phase consisted of three focus group discussions to validate and contextualize findings and feed those back into practice. We drew on role theory, literature from entre-/ intrapreneurship, and the management accountant role as guiding perspectives. The results indicate that intrapreneurial behavior is considered decisive for successful finance business partnering. To realize this behavior, individual (e.g., intrapreneurial self-efficacy) and contextual factors (e.g., trust, work discretion, and management support) have a significant direct impact. An impact of personality or skills could not be supported. These findings advance scholarly research as management accounting scholars are provided with accounts from contemporary practice and can benefit from the interdisciplinary lens drawing on intrapreneurship and trust research to broaden their view on the Finance Business Partner role. Practitioners are equipped with knowledge of relevant factors on the individual and contextual level to foster the intrapreneurial behavior of their Finance Business Partners.enIntrapreneuringManagement accountingMethodenmixEDIS-5220Finance Business PartnerBusiness partnerFinanzleiterControllerManagement Accountantunternehmerisches VerhaltenIntrapreneurial behaviorMixed methodsdoctoral thesis