STRATEGIC RENEWAL IN AN ERA OF PERSISTENT UNCERTAINTY: A DUAL DISRUPTION PERSPECTIVE

Continued uncertainty has been the pre-eminent feature of the modern strategic environment that has questionedestablished beliefs regarding disruption, adaptation, and renewal. Much of the strategic renewal literature remainswithin these conceptualizations of disruption being episodic and externally-driven with primary focus onorganizational reactions to recognizable shocks. According to this article, such views are becoming more and moreinadequate. Based on the strategic renewal and dynamic capabilities literature, the article builds on a dual disruptionview that disruption is understood as a simultaneous external and internal process, taking place over time.Technological change, market volatility and institutional instability are external disruption causes, whereas decisionfatigue, strategic inertia, cognitive strain and organizational congruence erosion are internal disruption causes. Thearticle provides a conceptual synthesis of existing literature, which redefines strategic renewal as an open-endeddynamic capability that is focused on dealing with pervasive uncertainty, strategic irreversibility, and alignment ofstrategy, structure, and leadership cognition. The suggested viewpoint underlines the reason why the traditionalrenewal strategies so frequently fail in the face of long-term volatility and why so many massive transformationprojects fail. The article adds to the field of strategic management by incorporating the concept of uncertainty,irreversibility and the internal disruption in an organization into one framework of renewal. It ends by drawingimplications of research and practice, creating preparedness, adapting, and coherence as the key factors of strategicrenewal in conditions where no stability can be considered a realistic expectation.