STRATEGIC

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

TOPIC 1
DR ANIS AMIRA AB RAHMAN
FACULTY OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND BUSINESS
UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA KELANTAN
anisamira@umk.edu.my

INTRODUCTION TO THE
CONCEPT OF STRATEGIC
ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Table 1: The birth of strategic entrepreneurship

Name of Author
Mintzberg
Schendel&Hofer

Year
1973
1979

Issues relate to strategic entrepreneurship

Introduce the notion of entrepreneurial strategy making
Argued that the entrepreneurial choice is at the heart of the concept of strategic

Burgelman

1983

Covin&Slevin

1989

Chittipeddi&Wallett

1991

Empirically examine the interrelationship between strategic management and entrepreneurship

inside a large corporation
Posited the concept of entrepreneurial strategy posture examining a firms competitive
orientation on a spectrum from conservative to entrepreneurial
Reviewed macroscopic trend impacting business and argue that the ethos of entrepreneurship
would pervade winning firms and that the organizational archetype of the future will be
entrepreneurial . Its leadership, strategies, and structure will reflect entrepreneurial thinking
with associated traits such as flexibility, innovativeness, and a problem solving actions
orientation.

Day

1992

Examined the research linkages between entrepreneurship, strategy management, and

general management and offers one possible configuration of their interrelation.

Sandberg

1992

Barringer&Bluedorn

1999

Investigated cross-fertilization opportunities between strategy management and

entrepreneurship and posited six fertile areas; innovation; new business creation; opportunities
seeking; risk assumption; top management teams; and group processes used in strategic
decisions.
Studied the relationship between entrepreneurial intensity and five strategic management
practices finding statistically significant results for the impacts of scanning intensity, planning
flexibility, locus of planning and strategic controls.

Meyer & Heppard

2000

Edited the first scholarly book addressing the interface between entrepreneurship and strategy
to uncover the components of a firms entrepreneurial dominant logic independent of firm size.

The Birth of Strategic

Entrepreneurship
There are three perspectives on the marriage of strategic and
entrepreneurship.
strategic management is dominants over
entrepreneurship (Baker and Pollock, 2007 cited in
Rensburg, 2013)
strategic management is itself a subset of
entrepreneurship (Browne & Harms, 2003 cited in
Rensburg, 2013)
Strategic management intersection with entrepreneurship
(Rensburg, 2013).
The former indicates that the entrepreneurship concepts can
be explained by the strategic management domains while the
later argues that strategic management only the division of
entrepreneurship field.
The intersection perspective agrees with the overlapping of
researchs areas and suggests that the marriage should be
created through combining the core advantages of each which

The Birth of Strategic

Entrepreneurship
The term of Strategic Entrepreneurship was
first pointed out by Herbert & Brazeal (1998
cited in Rensburg, 2013).
Researchers in Strategic Entrepreneurship field,
studies on board of directors roles, firm
resources and capabilities, and financial
implications (Rensburg,2013).
Other researchers study on the combination of
opportunities seeking behaviour (exploration)
and advantages seeking behaviour (exploitation)
and relates it to wealth creation (Hitt et al. cited
in (Rensburg, 2013)

What is Strategy?
The Implicit Strategy Model of the Sustainable Competitive
Past Decade
Advantage
One ideal competitive position
in the industry

Unique competitive position for

the company

Benchmarking of all activities

and achieving best practice

Activities tailored to strategy

Aggressive outsourcing and

partnering to gain efficiencies

Clear trade offs and choices

vis--vis competitors

Advantages rest on a few key

success factors, critical
resources and core
competencies

Competitive advantages arises

from fit across activities

Flexibility and rapid responses

to all competitive and market
changes

Sustainability comes from the

activity system, not the parts

Sources : Michael E.Porter, (1996 cited in Kuratko,

D. F. & Hodgetts, R. M., 2004: 532)

Operational effectiveness a
given

Strategic Entrepreneurship and Strategic

Management

Source : Wheelen, T. L. and Hunger, J. D.

(2000 cited in Kuratko, D. F. & Hodgetts, R.
M., 2004: 521).

How strategic management relates to

strategic entrepreneurship?

Innovation
Networks
Internalizatio
Strategic
Entrepreneurial n
Organization actions
actions
al Learning
Top
Management
Teams and
governance
Growth

Wealth Creation

Source : R. Duane Ireland, Micheal A.Hitt, S.

Michael Camp, and Donald L.Sexton, (2001 cited
in in Kuratko, D. F. & Hodgetts, R. M., 2004: 531)

Components of Strategic
Entrepreneurship

Growth

vision

Resource
Management
Opportunit
y
identificati
on
Strategic
Entrepreneurs
hip
Flexibilit
y
Dynamic capability

Sources : Kyrgidou, L. P. And

Mathew Hughes, M. (2009:
49)

Innovatio
n

Acceptan
ce of risk

Components of Strategic
Entrepreneurship
Opportunity identification - suggested to be an
important source of competitive advantage (Hitt et al.,
2002), which can lead to entrepreneurial opportunity
creation.
Innovation or the ability to innovate - one of the
distinctive competencies of entrepreneurial firms (Kirby,
2003). Sonfield and Luccier (1997) expand on this
concept proposing that the most effective way to position
an entrepreneurial firm is to use risk and innovation.
Risk - referring to perceived environment (Smircich and
Stubbart, 1985). The entrepreneur does not make a
conscious decision to engage in highly risky projects, but
rather their perception of that situation is of moderate
rather than of high risk (Busenitz and Barney, 1997).
UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA KELANTAN

Components of Strategic
Entrepreneurship
Flexibility- firms should be able to respond to change
quickly, independent of their current strategy (Eisenhardt
et al., 2000). Flexibility refers to balancing structure with
the freedom to implement and change strategy
(Eisenhardt et al., 2000), which in turn will facilitate quick
response to change (Bhide, 1994).
Vision- Establishing a clear vision and developing
strategy that focuses both on opportunity and advantage
within that vision (Hitt et al., 2001) enhance opportunity
identification
Growth is related not only to innovative and creative
ideas, but also to the structure and strategy to turn such
ideas into profitable ventures resources and dynamic
capabilities appear
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Definition of Strategic
Entrepreneurship
Strategy entrepreneurship is the use and/or
stimulation of entrepreneurial activity to
achieve strategic goals, (Kuratko & Audretsch,
2009 cited in Rensburg, 2013).
In addition, strategic entrepreneurship is still
mainly a rather loose amalgam of a number of
insights from strategy and entrepreneurship
(Foss & Lyngsie, 2011, p. 16).
Strategic entrepreneurship describing an
input-process-output model that entails:
organizational resources, individual
knowledge, and skills, and environmental
factors as inputs.

Definition of Strategic
Entrepreneurship
Guth & Ginsberg (1990), they replace strategic
renewal with strategic entrepreneurship
relegating strategic renewal to sub strategy of
strategic entrepreneurship. Moreover,
strategic entrepreneurship can be enacted
within small medium size enterprise as well as
within large established corporations
(Resburg, 2013).
The existences of entrepreneurial behaviour in
large frim is either the result of a deliberate or
an emergent strategy or as Burgelman
(1993b) described it the result of induced
strategy behaviour or autonomous strategy
behaviour.

Strategic Entrepreneurship
Theory

Sources : Kyrgidou, L. P. And Mathew

Hughes, M. (2009: 53)

Conclusion
Entrepreneurs do not use strategic planning for
many reasons because:
scarcity of time
lack of knowledge about how to plan
lack of expertise in the planning process,
lack of trust in others.

Benefits to strategic entrepreneurs are:

have better financial performance

more efficient resource allocation
improved competitive position
higher employee morale
more rapid decision making

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REFERENCES

Rensburg, D.J.V. (2013). Is Strategic Entrepreneurship a Pleonasm?. Journal of Management

and Strategy, 4, 1, 15-27.
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Ohio: Thomson/South-Western
Kyrgidou, L. P., & Hughes, M. (2010). Strategic entrepreneurship: Origins, core elements and
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