Abstract: Faced with a highly uncertain environment, why and how to start a business within the enterprise has been unsolved. From the lean startup perspective and based on qualitative research method, this paper discusses and analyzes the reasons and process of intrapreneurship, and constructs dynamic process model of intrapreneurship under the dual-path of “new venture within enterprise” and “derivative venture out of enterprise”. Specifically, (1) External environment change causes organizational change, triggers bottom-up innovation, and results in intrapreneurship activity; (2) In the first path, it uses intra incubation strategy around the validation study can reduce the waste in the production process; In the other path, applies open innovation strategy to make up for the lack of internal resources and technology. Using dual-path to conduct intrapreneurship can reduce the risk effectively. The conclusions not only enrich the theory of intrapreneurship, but also have the guidance significance for enterprise adopting the lean startup approach. Finally, the paper discusses the limitations and future research directions.

Key words: lean startup, intrapreneurship, grounded theory