Cultivation of Intrapreneurship: A Framework and Challenges.

Intrapreneurship has drawn research attention over the past decades considering its crucial role in innovation, organizational performance, and employee career planning. Intrapreneurial research based on various concepts also emerges. In spite of the increasing concern in the field, contributions in the field are fragmented. Particularly, intrapreneurship research is still lacking an integrated framework based on which, enablers and important facilitating mechanisms can be identified to enhance intrapreneurship. To close the above research gap, the study develops a holistic intrapreneurial framework. Specifically, the study first examines intrapreneurship in relation to other prominent concepts (i.e., innovation, entrepreneurship, and sustainability). This study then identifies enablers of intrapreneurship at both individual and organizational level. Notably, extant research largely examines intrapreneurship either at the organizational or individual level, and concentrates in corporate entrepreneurship or individual intrapreneurial employees. Research providing a holistic perspective on enablers for intrapreneurship is rare. The study further integrates these intrapreneurial enablers with facilitating mechanisms and proposes a framework of intrapreneurship. The framework makes it possible to clearly identify pivotal antecedents to intrapreneurship based on various theoretical lenses and analytical levels applied. Finally, the study addresses a list of managerial and technological challenges arising from the above framework and suggests future research agenda.

A Four-Step Cascade Drug-Release Management Strategy for Transcatheter Arterial Chemoembolization (TACE) Therapeutic Applications.

The purpose of this study was to develop a four-step cascade drug-release system for transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) therapeutic applications according to disease-driven and patient-focused design theories. The four steps underlying these strategies involve the blockage of nutrient supply, nanoparticles, codelivery and the cell cytotoxic effect. Calibrated spherical gellan gum (GG) and nanoparticle-containing gellan gum microspheres were prepared using a water-in-oil emulsification method. Self-assembled nanoparticles featuring amine-functionalized graphene oxide (AFGO) as the doxorubicin (Dox) carrier were prepared. The results confirm that, as a drug carrier, AFGO-Dox nanoparticles can facilitate the transport of doxorubicin into HepG2 liver cancer cells. Subsequently, AFGO-Dox was introduced into gellan gum (GG) microspheres, thus forming GG/AFGO-Dox microspheres with a mean size of 200-700 µm. After a drug release experiment lasting 28 days, the amount of doxorubicin released from 674 and 226 µm GG/AFGO-Dox microspheres was 2.31 and 1.18 µg/mg, respectively. GG/AFGO-Dox microspheres were applied in a rabbit ear embolization model, where ischemic necrosis was visible on the ear after 12 days. Our aim for the future is to provide better embolization agents for transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) using this device.