Entrepreneurial-oriented strategic renewal in a Brazilian SME: a case study

Abstract

Purpose

Firms around the world seek new paths to maintain competitiveness and renew their businesses. Although entrepreneurial-orientation (EO) is extensively researched, there is some ambiguity regarding different variables that mediate the effects of such strategy on business performance. Hence, current literature lacks in-depth studies that provide useful tools for companies to implement effective change, in contrast to the quantitative methods normally applied.

Design/methodology/approach

Through an in-depth case study, the authors explored whether the implementation of an entrepreneurial-oriented strategy by an incumbent firm in Brazil would renew its business and potentially increase its performance.

Findings

The study showed that performance is achieved when the pervasiveness of EO activities spurs the company's boundaries, promoting not only intraorganizational changes but also multiple-stakeholder engagement.

Research limitations/implications

This study reinforces the idea that EO alone may not be sufficient to increase firm performance and must be considered more comprehensively. Although case studies always suffer from the problem of generalization, the authors provide a good illustration of a strategy being implemented in a constrained-resource environment.

Practical implications

This paper contributes to practice by discussing a real-life situation of a small company from an emerging economy.

Originality/value

The authors provide a holistic view of the firm, presenting the managerial changes in a new framework, which combines EO and inward- and outward-looking perspectives.

Citation

Moretti, D.M., Alves, F.C. and Bomtempo, J.V. (2020), "Entrepreneurial-oriented strategic renewal in a Brazilian SME: a case study", Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Vol. 27 No. 2, pp. 219-236. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSBED-07-2019-0254