Strategic renewal: Can it be done profitably?

Industry transformation requires strategic renewal at the level of individual firms. Executives then face the dilemma of choosing renewal paths in the face of uncertainty over the competitive environment of the future, and hence the profitability of potential strategies. This dilemma motivates us to study industry transformation from the perspective of strategic renewal among 208 large firms in the global pulp and paper industry. The findings of our qualitative comparative analysis show that only a minority of firms in our sample succeeded in profitable proactive renewal. Content-wise, there were similarities in the pursued strategies over the wider population, but only a few maintained superior profitability while proactively renewing. Our results, overall, highlight the importance of understanding the processual nature and execution of strategic renewal.