A Longitudinal Process Perspective On Strategic Renewals: Three Decades Of Braithwaite

Organizational renewals, the processes, and outcomes of changes in the scope and resource deployments of a firm's business have long been of interest to management scholars. However, the long-term sustainability of organizational turnaround, renewal, or transformation is seldom studied, though these are considered primarily strategic, i.e., long-term in nature. This leads to a gap in our understanding of what works and what does in the long run and how to understand strategic renewals over long periods of time. Leveraging access to a centurion organization, which underwent three renewal cycles, this research aims to first explore what makes renewals strategic – what works and what does not, deepening our insights on how to understand strategic renewals. The studied organization is a public sector organization in India that had undergone three renewals, with two of them unable to survive the test of time. Studying the processes and content of the three renewals, we find renewals to consist of a myriad of activities varying in scope and commitment, with numerous reversals and backtracking, emphasizing the nonlinear and complex dynamics at play in organizational renewals.