Strategic change: A systematic review, synthesis, and a future research agenda

Abstract

Strategic change (SC) is widely addressed in the scholarly domain and continues to gain momentum in the rapidly evolving landscape of today's business world. What are the antecedents, processes, outcomes, and who are the actors in SC? We address this question through a systematic review of SC that suggests new avenues for management research and offers important reflections for practice regarding: (i) the main factors responsible for determining SC; (ii) the principal actions and methods adopted to implement SC; (iii) the main effects associated with SC; and (iv) the actors responsible for directing SC. By synthesizing and integrating the extant research, this review develops a framework of types of antecedents (i.e., internal and external), processes (i.e., initiation, implementation, sensemaking, and sensegiving), outcomes (i.e., adaptive and disruptive), and actors (i.e., chief executive officer [CEO], board of directors, top management team [TMT], and collective leadership) of SC. Our review culminates in the development of a series potential avenues for future research.