Can an old firm learn new tricks? A corporate entrepreneurship approach to organizational renewal

Corporate entrepreneurship (CE) strategies are widely recommended for established firms to solve growth- and economic performance-related problems that they encounter in highly competitive business environments. However, relatively little empirical light has been shed on practical CE strategy processes and how they function in the everyday lives of organizations. The case study presented herein addresses this underexplored issue by describing how one long-established firm in dire economic circumstances renewed its strategy, as related by an interview with the company's managing director. The analysis draws on the theoretical ideas of corporate entrepreneurship models and focuses on practical activities within the strategic renewal process: What did the case firm actually do to compensate for decreasing turnover and to improve its longer-term position in the market? The findings underscore the progressive, proactive, and impermanent nature of CE strategies; further, they suggest that firms need clients and other external partners with equally ambitious business objectives in order to successfully implement their CE strategies.