External enablers in existing organizations: Emergence, novelty, and persistence of entrepreneurial initiatives

Abstract

There is growing consensus that exogenous environmental changes can affect entrepreneurship. The external enabler framework, which provides the structures and terminology to analyze these enabling effects, has typically focused on new venture creation. In an attempt to extend the external enabler framework to corporate entrepreneurship and innovation, our longitudinal multiple-case study explores how environmental changes enable entrepreneurial initiatives in existing organizations. Our findings contribute to the external enabler framework, corporate entrepreneurship, and innovation literature by identifying new conceptual tools to understand the enabling effect of environmental change for the emergence, novelty, and persistence of entrepreneurial initiatives in existing organizations.

Environmental change, strategic entrepreneurial action, and success: Introduction to a special issue on an important, neglected topic

“…Any disequilibrating alteration of the business environment, such as new technology, regulatory change, demographic and sociocultural trends, macroeconomic swings, and changes to the natural environment (Dutta, 2017;Hiatt et al, 2009;Sine & Lee, 2009;von Briel et al, 2018). Cestino et al (2023), Juma et al (2023), andLucas et al (2023) study contexts that involve both regulatory and natural-environmental changes. Motley et al (2023) study interactions between levels of environmental change at two points in time.…”

“…In “External Enablers in Existing Organizations: Emergence, Novelty, and Persistence of Entrepreneurial Initiatives,” Cestino et al (2023) explore the ways in which significant environmental shocks can affect entrepreneurial initiatives within established firms. Through a rich inductive analysis of the local news industry in New York, they discover how the COVID‐19 pandemic led organizations to reconsider both ongoing and abandoned initiatives in response to the changed potentials provided by the exogenous changes.…”

“…Several papers in this special issue demonstrate how this task can be approached. For example, Cestino et al (2023), Juma et al (2023), and Lucas et al (2023) study contexts that involve both regulatory and natural‐environmental changes. Motley et al (2023) study interactions between levels of environmental dynamism at two points of venture development.…”

“…For example, one case could involve environmental changes as the main inspiration for a new venture from the outset. Another case could feature environmental changes as the key to a venture's viability although the change had no fundamental role in its initiation (see Cestino et al, 2023, this issue). Yet another case could feature environmental change that had no role in strategic deliberations but nevertheless fortuitously enhanced the performance of the venture.…”

“…For example,Cestino et al (2023),Juma et al (2023), andLucas et al (2023) study contexts that involve both regulatory and natural-environmental changes.Motley et al …”