Strategic Renewal Research Articles

Strategic Renewal at Home and Work: Exploring the Mechanisms and Boundary Conditions

In this weekly diary study, we integrated research on strategic renewal and the Work-Home Resources model (i.e., W-HR model) to explore the associations between strategic renewal at home and strategic renewal at work domains through flow at home and self-efficacy at work. We also investigated the home domain outcomes of self-efficacy at work (satisfaction with work-family balance and family performance). Furthermore, we investigated the moderation effects of family climate for creativity (perceived by both the employee and the spouse) and organizational climate for creativity perceived by the employee. We tested our hypotheses with matched dual-earner couples’ data collected over six weeks in the U.S.A. The results from multilevel analyses revealed that a) strategic renewal at home is positively related to strategic renewal at work via flow at home and self-efficacy at work, b) self-efficacy at work is positively related to satisfaction with work-family balance of the employee, and family performance of the employee, all measured at the week level. Furthermore, our results have shown that a) family climate for creativity moderates the relationship between strategic renewal at home and flow at home, and b) organizational climate for creativity moderates the relationship between self-efficacy at work and strategic renewal at work. Our results contribute to the strategic renewal literature by empirically establishing the untested mechanism of how strategic renewal at home leads to positive work outcomes through flow and self-efficacy at work.

The Elephant-Donkey Divide: Ideology-Based Faultlines and Strategic Renewal in Turnaround Situations

Research on political psychology suggests that ideological differences among individuals in groups become salient in situations characterized by ‘uncertainty and threat’. We integrate faultlines theory with the uncertainty-threat principle from political psychology to introduce the notion of ideology-based top management team (TMT) faultlines – and examine its effects on strategic renewal in an uncertainty-threat context (i.e., turnaround situations). We argue that, in turnaround situations, differences in political ideology can fracture the TMT into distinct ideological factions (i.e., conservatives vs. liberals) with divergent attitudes toward the adequate management of ‘uncertainty and threat’. Such divergent attitudes cause decision-making fragmentation in the executive group, and thereby reduce the TMT’s ability to swiftly enact strategic renewal. Further, our research also considers the contingency impact of external environmental factors (i.e., shareholder unrest and industry performance decline) that may strengthen the job demands and uncertainty-threat facing executives in turnaround firms and further hamper renewal response. Building upon our findings, we offer a midrange theory of ideological separation in organizational upper echelons and highlight its impact on corporate strategic responses to situations requiring swift and adaptive action.

An Investigation into Digital Strategic Entrepreneurship by a pair of Family Business Groups

How do established firms entrepreneurially leverage digital technologies for strategic renewal is an important scholarly question. This paper examines strategic entrepreneurship by two of the largest family business groups in India that have been undertaking many strategic entrepreneurial initiatives to leverage a suite of digital technologies to fundamentally reposition themselves in the emerging digital economy. It underscores strategic entrepreneurship as the primary means to achieve digital technology driven strategic renewal. It is observed that when an established firm undertakes digital strategic entrepreneurship, the strategic leadership of the firm has to simultaneously deal with two dominant logics, one rooted in legacy and the other embedded in emerging digital entity. A business group structure helps in dealing with simultaneous exploration and exploitation more effectively. The study advances a set of novel propositions on the entrepreneurial strategies of established firms that leverage digital technologies to undertake strategic entrepreneurship and contributes to the literatures of strategic entrepreneurship, digital entrepreneurship, strategic leadership and strategic renewal.

Managerial Capabilities and Strategic Renewal during the COVID-19 Crisis: A Generational View

This study examines whether founding generation managed family firms are capable of responding proactively to the COVID-19 disruption via firm renewal. We used a unique global COVID-19 specific survey dataset comprising of 2130 family firm observations. Our findings indicate that in comparison to the later generations, founding generation-managed family firms only do better at strategic renewal as a response to the crisis when they have sufficient managerial capabilities. Our study recommends that family businesses, especially those managed by the founding generations should emphasize managerial capabilities, rather than merely focusing on socioemotional wealth (SEW) when deciding on crisis coping strategies.

Executive Training and Strategic Renewal: Theory and Historical Evidence

The literature remains ambiguous on the impact of corporate-specific executive training programs on organizational performance. Instead of considering economic and learning performance, we study executive training programs as platforms that political coalitions can use to promote or block strategic renewal processes. In our comparative historical study, we look at executive training in three different organizations. The findings suggest that the transformative results of executive training programs hinge on the interplay of four potential mechanisms: program organizers’ entrepreneurial skills, the characteristics of the organizational architecture, degree of ambiguity of strategic goals, and educational content of the training program. Extended to similar cases as studied here, skillful organizational actors may use executive training programs as vehicles in broader programs of strategic renewal. However, organizational architecture and/or strong political coalitions may block such attempts and marginalize executive training programs as ritualistic symbols of modern management.

Strategic Inertia and Renewal: Contrasting Responses to Market Changes

The academic, consulting, and practitioner-oriented literatures present many examples of companies that have failed to adapt their strategy in the face of a changing competitive arena, even when their top managers and executives acknowledged the need for change—and had a reasonable idea of what ought to be done. By means of an in-depth study of two polar cases of large companies from the fast-moving consumer goods sector, we shed light on the complex intertwined causes that might lead some companies into strategic inertia, while others engage in strategic renewal. Our findings suggest that strategic inertia is a multilevel phenomenon, which extends beyond the “usual suspects” presented, in isolation or in combination, in the literature (i.e., cognitions, power and politicking, emotions, and communication). We found that encouragement of divergent judgments and a participative planning process, as well as propensity to experiment, may lead a company to jettison the drivers of its past success and embrace novel pathways with serenity to deal with short-term uncertainty and anguish.

Inside Persistent Strategic Renewal: A Process Study of Structural Ambidexterity

This article shows how repeated separations and reintegrations of ambidextrous innovation units becomes a mechanism for persistent strategic renewal of an established firm. A process model is developed showing distinct stages in the ambidextrous process and the different dynamic capabilities occurring at each stage. Learning and improvement after each successive cycle of the ambidextrous process is also illustrated, as well as cross-unit linking mechanisms. I draw on a 25 year retrospective longitudinal analysis of an embedded-case study of three historical ambidextrous units within the same firm. The findings contribute to extant research by developing a link between structural ambidexterity, dynamic capabilities, strategic renewal, and persistent innovation through an in-depth process model.

Underrated Innovators: Reactive Search of Incumbent Firms under Disruptive Innovation Shocks

How do incumbent firms choose appropriate response strategies in the face of disruptive shocks from new entrants? Based on the problem-solving perspective, we conducted a multiple-case study of three incumbent firms in China’s home appliance industry successfully responding to new entrants. The results show that (1) under the disruptive shocks, incumbents mainly face the problems of incremental or radical innovation in the technological dimension and existing or new demand in the market dimension. (2) In the face of heterogeneous problems, incumbents’ reactive timing (fast vs. slow) and search behavior (heuristic search vs. trial-and-error search) are different. (3) Through various action combinations, they can choose reinforcing, challenging, or adapting strategies to deal with the shocks. Overall, a key contribution of this paper is to provide a new conceptual framework for incumbents to respond to disruptive shocks, outlining their reactive search actions and processes. This framework responds to previous studies’ underestimation of incumbents and deepens the understanding of corporate strategic renewal activities in the era of change.

Designing a Strategic Renewal Model for Development of Organizations in Iran based on the Professional Identity of Managers (Case Study: The State-owned Companies of IDRO)

Designing a Strategic Renewal Model for Development of Organizations in Iran based on the Professional Identity of Managers (Case Study: The State-owned Companies of IDRO)

Strategic Renewal Initiatives of Malaysia Hotel Industry in Response to Covid-19 Pandemic

The ruthless march of COVID-19 throughout the globe is first and foremost a human tragedy, affecting the health of hundreds of thousands of people. The consequences of measures taken worldwide to curb the pandemic are having a growing impact on the global economy. The recent outbreak of Novel Coronavirus COVID-19 has led to a global panic due to its fatal nature. Malaysia is currently being aware of this pandemic disease and the government has imposed Movement Control Order (MCO) for preventing the spread of this disease and hospitality industries are muchly impacted during the government orders. Drawing on the contingency theory of management, this research seeks to examine the effect of Covid-19 pandemic towards the hospitality management industries. Additionally, there is still limited research examining the impact of the pandemic towards hospitality industries in Malaysia. Keywords: Hotel Industry, Hotel Performance, Strategic Renewal Initiatives, Covid-19 Pandemic

Achieving Organizational Success Through Strategic Renewal

Achieving Organizational Success Through Strategic Renewal

Does Strategic Renewal Affect the Organizational Reputation of Travel Agents Through Organizational Identification?

Does Strategic Renewal Affect the Organizational Reputation of Travel Agents Through Organizational Identification?

Nexus Between Capacity-Building Strategic Renewal and Performance of Youth-Owned Agro-Processing Small and Medium Enterprises in Selected Counties in Kenya

For the success of any business, there is a need for continuous improvement of the competitive advantage. The ever-changing economic environment is a big challenge for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) especially those that don’t possess strategic plans. In the recent turbulent times caused by globalization, SMEs are facing challenges and this has seen a number of them collapsing. The purpose of this study was to examine the nexus between capacity-building strategic renewal and performance of youth-owned agro-processing SMEs in selected counties in Kenya which variables of the study were investment training, management skills training, and bookkeeping training. The study was anchored on transformation learning theory and the research design adopted was a descriptive cross-sectional survey. The study targeted youthowned agro-processing SMEs registered by the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the four County Governments namely, Nyeri, Kirinyanga, Murang’a, and Nyandarua. The sampling frame was 287 and the population under study was 287 youth-owned agro-processing SMEs. The study gathered primary data using a semi-structured questionnaire with predetermined questions and highly standardized techniques of recording. The findings of the study were presented by the use of descriptive and inferential statistics. From the findings, the overall model of the study was R2 = 0.498, meaning that capacity-building strategies explained 49.8% of the variation in performance. The study coefficients was 0.834, tis 19.141, which was >2, and a p-value of 0.000 which implied that there was a statistically significant influence of capacity-building strategies on the performance of youth-owned agro-processing SMEs. In conclusion, it was noted that capacity-building influences the performance of the youth-owned agro-processing SMEs in selected counties in Kenya. This study recommends that there is a need for SMEs to further establish capacity-building strategies.

Engaging professionals in the strategic renewal of public services: A literature review and research agenda

Based on an extensive literature review, this article explores the impact of strategic renewal in the public sector on the roles and skills of public professionals. Findings show that successive reforms of New Public Management and New Public Governance have resulted in hybrid role requirements that go beyond the often-debated dichotomy between professionalism and management. Based on our review, we could distinguish four sets of skills for professionals, linking traditional professional expertise to competences for networking and co-creation. Implications for future research are discussed.

Engaging people with lived experience on advisory councils of a national not-for-profit: an integrated knowledge translation case study of Heart & Stroke Mission Critical Area Councils

BackgroundIn 2018, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada transformed its approach to organizational strategic planning and priority-setting. The goal was to generate impact from bench to bedside to community, to improve the health of Canadians. It engaged researchers, clinician scientists, health systems leaders, and community members including people with lived experience (PWLE) on six Mission Critical Area (MCA) councils, each of which was co-chaired by a researcher or clinician scientist and a person with lived experience. Together, council members were tasked with providing advice to Heart & Stroke about the most relevant and impactful priorities of our time. The aim of this research was to explore the value of the MCA councils to Heart & Stroke, and to council members themselves. The research questions focused on understanding the process of managing and participating on the councils, the challenges and outcomes.Methods Using an integrated knowledge translation approach, we conducted a case study with developmental evaluation over a 2-year time period (2018–2020). We collected qualitative data from various sources (Heart & Stroke team responsible for managing the councils, council co-chairs, council members, and key informants). We collected documents and analysed them for contextual background.Results Participants noted that the MCA councils continuously evolved over the 2 years in various ways: from an uncertain direction to a concrete one, better integrating the voice of PWLE, and increased cohesiveness within and across MCA councils. This evolution was achieved in parallel with successes and challenges at three levels: the MCA councils and its members, Heart & Stroke, and Canadians. The MCA councils were disbanded in 2020, yet learnings, developments, initiatives and established partnerships remain as their legacy.Conclusions Heart & Stroke’s intended objectives for the MCA councils, to promote engagement and dialogue among community members including PWLE, clinician scientists, and researchers, and to provide advice into Heart & Stroke’s strategic renewal process, were achieved. This collaborative structure and process for PWLE engagement within a community of multidisciplinary clinician scientists and researchers is possible yet requires flexibility, commitment to stakeholder relationship management, and considerable resources. These findings may be helpful for other not-for-profit and funding organizations interested in engaging the public and other stakeholders into their organizational activities.

Enabling collaborative dynamic capabilities in strategic communities: Firm- vs. network-centric perspectives

AbstractThis conceptual paper focuses on the importance of extending thecollaborative dynamic capabilities(C-DCs) view and its emphasis on the boundary spanningstrategic communities(SCs) fromfirm-centric to thenetwork-centric perspective. The C-DC view is an original theoretical perspective that offers a good explanation of corporate-level transformations in the context of cross-sectoral convergence. Although the focus of prevailing research on large firms as cornerstones of SCs is valid, it does not fully capture the more complex dynamics that take in the horizontal networks of firms. We show that C-DC and SC theoretical perspectives can be adapted to the context of regional industrial clusters and contribute to their strategic renewal. The paper conceptualizes the different challenges and nature of leadership that prevail in SC-based firms networks. It also presents the different enabling aspects of collaborative DCs (with regard to trust building, co-specialization and capability synthesis) in firm- vs. network-centric environments.

The Relational Dynamics of Issue-Selling: Enacting Different Genres for Dealing with Discontent

Actors without formal power can initiate and shape organizational change through issue selling as a means to address their concerns about organizational practices. The literature has emphasized the need for perspective taking and found discontent to be associated with inhibiting fear. Based on a longitudinal field study of middle managers trying to instigate strategic renewal in six different manufacturing companies, we find that discontent can also energize issue selling, particularly if sellers and recipients also engage in perspective taking. We identified three different genres of issue selling and enacting discontent that are jointly shaped by sellers and recipients: 1) productive confrontation, 2) avoiding escalation, and 3) collective moaning. In a process model of issue selling as framing, mobilizing and pursuing, we illustrate how the genres form part of an organization’s collective repertoire of initiating and responding to change. Our findings have implications for pursuing change as well as for managers seeking to create a constructive environment for expressing discontent.

Becoming a smart solution provider: Reconfiguring a product manufacturer's strategic capabilities and processes to facilitate business model innovation

The present study analyzes how a product manufacturer alters its strategic capabilities to become a smart solution provider by employing its dynamic capabilities. We scrutinize how a manufacturer facilitates strategic change by realigning its strategic capabilities and processes from a focus on technical product-development capabilities to product-service-software development capabilities, reconfiguring organizational routines focused on efficiency to routines focused on customer productivity, and shifting from a product logic to a service logic. By studying six leading manufacturing firms based on 86 manager interviews, the present study finds that strategic capabilities are renewed through dynamic capabilities, which involve a reconfiguration of strategic capabilities and processes. Furthermore, manufacturers need to consider the dynamic interplay between resource realignment modes (building digital capabilities, leveraging existing capabilities, accessing external capabilities, and releasing decaying capabilities), hence stressing their reinforcing mechanism to converge products, services, and software. For managers, our study highlights several strategic renewal practices designed to assist and benchmark how strategic capabilities are altered.

A dynamic framework for sustainable open innovation in the food industry

PurposeThis study aims to take a holistic perspective to investigate how open innovation supports sustainability and the contribution to the Unite Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on an in-depth single case study of Andriani SpA, a leading Italian company in the food industry. The case is built by triangulating data from direct observations, documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews.FindingsThe findings show an organization that has developed its competitive advantage by adopting open innovation to embed sustainability in its strategy and business model. The case study complements the understanding of how open innovation can effectively drive strategic renewal and innovation activities to address sustainability objectives in the food industry.Originality/valueThis study contributes to theoretical development by offering new and insightful explanations of firms' strategic behaviour and coevolution toward sustainability via open innovation. It provides practitioners, policymakers, researchers and students with reflections and inspiration about how open innovation may be deployed to support a holistic strategic renewal aimed at sustainability objectives, such as the SDGs, in the food industry.

Chief Executive Officer Tenacity and Employee Intrapreneurial Behavior: The Mediating Role of Corporate Social Responsibility.

Chief executive officer (CEO) tenacity plays an important role in corporate entrepreneurial activity. However, much less is known about its impact on employee intrapreneurship. Drawing from social information processing theory and upper echelons theory, this article examines the hitherto unexplored nexus between CEO tenacity and employee intrapreneurship, as well as the mediating role of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Quantitative data were collected through a survey administered to 294 employees working in different sectors that engage in CSR activities in China. Data analysis was performed using hierarchical regression method through Stata 16.0. It was found that CEO tenacity was significantly positively correlated with employee strategic renewal behavior (β = 0.523, p < 0.001) and employee venture behavior (β = 0.510, p < 0.001). The positive correlation between CEO tenacity and CSR was also significant (β = 0.578, p < 0.001). Besides, CSR partially mediated the relationship between CEO tenacity and employee strategic renewal behavior (40.0%) or employee venture behavior (50.2%). This study extends research on CEO tenacity, CSR, or employee intrapreneurial behavior by providing a better understanding of the direct effects of CEO tenacity on employee intrapreneurial behavior and CSR. From the perspective of cross-fertilization between psychology and management, this study establishes the interface role of CSR by elucidating the intrinsic mechanism of CEOs with high levels of tenacity to stimulate employee intrapreneurial behavior through CSR.