Chinese enterprises have entered to the speed competition instead of the scale competition; the enterprises can match with the dynamic environment better through strategic transformation. In this paper, we selected 51 literatures about enterprise strategic transformation from the “national natural science fund” and “national social science fund”, and based on this 51 literatures, we analyze these literatures in terms of the concept, motivation, transformation process and the result of strategic transformation, analyze the current research situation and research deficiencies of the existing research, prospect the future research, in order to provide guidance to Chinese enterprises and scholars.
With the emergence of the wave of information technology, enterprises are faced with the ever-changing competitive environment and the sustainability of their competitive advantages is gradually challenged. In order to maintain competitive advantage in the dynamic environment, more and more enterprises choose strategic transformation.
The concept of strategic transformation was first proposed by practitioners, Western scholars have always been very concerned about the strategic transformation of enterprises. The first definition of strategic transformation is proposed by Ansoff [
Based on the findings of previous scholars, domestic and foreign scholars have paid great attention to strategic transformation, and conducted in-depth research on the motivation, processes and consequences of strategic transformation from different theoretical perspectives. However, at present, the definition of strategic transformation is still not uniform at home and abroad, and there is a lack of literature review on strategic transformation. Although the strategic transformation has been fully concerned by domestic scholars, what is the progress of the existing research in China? What are the main research contents and the research results? We lack a systematic understanding. In the new round of technological progress and application, the Chinese government has proposed the direction of “Made in China 2025” and “Internet+”. With the further implementation of these policies, new and more complicated requirements will be put forward for the strategic transformation of enterprises. Based on this, the purpose of this study is to systematically review the relevant research on strategic transformation in China, analyze and define the concept of strategic transformation, clarify the whole process of strategic transformation, and integrate and construct a relatively complete research framework, at the same time, analyze the deficiencies of current research and the future development derection, in order to provide reference for the research on China’s strategic transformation, and facilitate the Chinese enterprises that are facing the challenge of transformation in a dynamic environment.
The research on the strategic transformation can be divided into two schools [
Domestic and foreign research has not yet clearly defined the definition of strategic transformation. Of the 51 articles that we examined in the past ten years, 9 articles specifically talked about the definition of strategic transformation, which can be roughly divided into two categories, one category is focus on the change of strategic content, the strategic transformation is to completely abandon the original strategic logic and framework, fundamentally re-develop the business strategy [
Looking at the existing research on strategic transformation, most studies also confuse strategic transformation with strategic change. Golembiewski divided organizational changes into three categories when studying organizational development: α changes, β changes, and γ changes [
Focus on changes in the strategic content | focuses on the synergetic evolution of organizational structure and management mode caused by strategic transformation |
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Due to major changes in the environment or a major failure in operation and management, in order to seek for the survival and development in the future, enterprises completely abandon the original strategic logic and framework and fundamentally re-establish their business strategy. | In order to maintain long-term survival, enterprise organizations take a continuous and nonlinear transformation in the form of business strategy, which can lead to the coordinated evolution of structure and organization. |
The essence of strategic transformation is to reconfigure, integrate and manage resources, change original resources and form new business models, so that the system is structured and hierarchical, from disorder to order, from lower order to higher level. | The strategic transformation of enterprises is also a multi-dimensional variable that includes both the changes of the product and the market scope as well as the adjustment of the organizational structure and management mode. |
The essence of enterprise strategic transformation is the process that enterprises make fundamental changes in the strategic content or shape of enterprises in response to the change of complex dynamic environment and the competitive advantage of seeking survival and development in the future, combining their own resources and capabilities. | Strategic transformation mainly refers to a strategic action that aims to achieve the matching between the elements of strategic organization and change the original strategic elements or structure, so as to change the strategic positioning or strategic formulation process. |
Under circumstances of major changes in the environment or the key turning point of management and operation, in order to seek their own survival and development, enterprises completely abandon the original strategic logic and framework, fundamentally re-establish the enterprise strategy and ensure the effective implementation of the strategy, make it can adapt to changes in the environment or overcome operational crisis, to achieve sustainable development. | Do not switch industry can also realize strategic transformation, in the sense that the upgrading in the original industries is the real transformation, the strategic transformation is the transformation of strategic thinking, framework, logic and mode, and it is not the transformation of the industry. |
Strategic transformation is a way to change the key characteristics of an organization in order to cope with changes in internal and external environment and make use of new technologies and actions to transform the form and content of enterprise strategy. |
redefines the conceptual area. In general, strategic change refers to the great and revolutionary changes in the strategic content of the company layer, which belong to the changes of α and β [
This paper argues that the ambiguous definition of the concept of strategic transformation will only make the research more and more confusing and not conducive to the scholars to carry out in-depth research. Only by building on a unified standard can the future research on strategic transformation be more and more specialized, and the greater the reference to the business. Based on the above analysis, this paper defines the strategic transformation as changing the strategic logic and framework in order to maintain the competitive advantage in an increasingly complex and dynamic environment, causing the synergetic evolution of the organizational structure and management mode and promoting the optimization of the enterprise’s value chain.
As the environment becomes more complicated and dynamic, some enterprises choose the strategic transformation, and some enterprises are still indifferent, which requires us to discuss what is driving the strategic transformation of enterprises. Through the statistical analysis of the sample literature, we categorize the key drivers of strategic transformation into three categories: external, internal, and subjective. Specific as shown in
1) External drivers
The external drivers view thinks that the driving force behind the strategic transformation is mainly the changes in the external business environment and the global economic integration. By virtue of their abundant capital and advanced technology, transnational enterprises can effectively integrate all kinds of advantageous resources in the world, and makes a great competition for the enterprises in the developing countries. At the same time, with the rapid pace of technology and innovation, while constantly outdated technically backward people, but also for the pioneer of new technology provides a broad space for development, it makes the external environment of the enterprise appear complex, dynamic, changeable, uncertainty and chaos. Because enterprise behavior is largely determined by the external environment, in order to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage in a dynamically changing environment, an enterprise will continually adapt itself to better match the environment, and this timely adaptation is essentially a strategic transformation. In the sample literature selected in this paper, Li Ye, Guo Jihui [
The key driving factors | external drivers | |
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Internal drivers | business resources and capabilities | |
performance | ||
enterprise lifecycle | ||
Subjective drivers | executive cognition | |
new CEO | ||
entrepreneurship |
trade logistics enterprises, and concluded that under the influence of the financial crisis, the volume of China’s import and export trade has obviously dropped. In particular, foreign trade-type logistics enterprises are seeking strategic transformation. Tang Jianxiong, Wang Guoshun and Zhou Yong [
2) Internal drivers
The internal drivers mainly analyzes the driving force of the enterprise’s strategic transformation from the internal change of the enterprise. Through combing and summarizing the sample literature, this paper divides it into three types: the enterprise’s resources and ability, the performance factor and the Enterprise life cycle.
First, business resources and capabilities. Starting from the view of resource base, as a collection of resources, resources are the guarantee of the formulation and implementation of enterprise strategy, and the evolution of enterprise organizational resources Ability has promoted a series of progressive strategic transformation behaviors of enterprises [
Second, the performance factor. There is a linear relationship between the change of corporate strategy and the past performance of enterprises [
Third, the enterprise lifecycle. The life cycle exists in the development of anything in the world, and businesses are no exception. MasonHaire first proposed in 1959 to use the “life cycle” perspective in biology to look at the business, the development of enterprises is also in line with the growth curve in biology. In 1889, Adizes divided the process of business growth into ten stages in his book “Enterprise Life Cycle”. On the basis of this, Adizes proposed a revised model of business life cycle, which is divided into gestation period, primary stage, development period, mature stage and recession period. Li ye [
3) Subjective drivers
The strategic transformation is essentially an option and judgment. Therefore, such choices and judgments are bound to be subjectively influenced by the senior executives of the enterprises. In our sample of the sample literature, the driving force behind the strategic transformation of senior executives is mainly divided into three types, one is executive recognition, one is the new CEO, the other is entrepreneurship.
First, the driving force of executive cognition to strategic transformation. The starting point of executive perception as the driving force is that the internal conditions of enterprises and changes in the external environment do not have a direct impact on business strategy, but the top managers need to understand the situation of the enterprise and the needs of transformation [
Second, the driving force of new CEO to strategic transformation. In general, the new CEO will introduce a series of new policies to declare its sovereignty and implement some big moves to attract the attention of the board of directors. Wiersema, Bantel [
Third, the driving force of entrepreneurship on strategic transformation. Mintzberg and Westley [
Based on the literature review and analysis of the strategic transformation process in the sample literature, this paper attempts to build a strategic transformation process framework shown in
1) the impact of dynamic capabilities
Teece [
opportunities and threats in a changing environment, to consolidate enterprise resources and refactor, and to innovate in strategic transformation. These capabilities of dynamic capabilities are in line with those of key elements, enabling these key elements to be well driven by their dynamic capabilities and enabling their strategic transformation through the effective implementation of key elements. Deng Shaojun [
2) The impact of organizational learning
Cyert and March proposed in 1963 that the strategic choice of an enterprise is based on the learning behavior of the members of the organization. In view of the principle of bounded rationality, organizational learning promotes and implements the strategic transformation through the principle of “satisfaction”. Based on past research, there is a close relationship between organizational learning and strategic transformation [
3) The influence of management cognition
One of the key hypotheses about strategic transformation is that the environment is not objectively determined, it is subjective through managers’ perceptions. From a management cognitive perspective, managers can not understand the organization’s internal and external environment. And managers are screening, processing and selective absorption of all the observed phenomena based on “filters” consisting of personal cognitive bases and values. March & Simon [
4) The impact of internal governance structure
Li Ye and Guo Jihui [
Earlier article has discussed the concept of strategic transformation, antecedents and processes, So what are the consequences of the strategic transformation of enterprises? From a practical point of view, the purpose of the strategic transformation of enterprises is to achieve results, therefore, to guide enterprises to better implement the strategic transformation, analyze and test the effectiveness of strategic transformation must be one of the focuses of the study. The effectiveness of the strategic transformation involved in the sample literature can be divided into two categories: one is financial performance and the other is non- financial performance. The financial performance is mainly refers to the incremental business turnover after the strategic transformation, more intuitive, so this article discusses the strategic transformation of non-financial performance, mainly in the following three aspects.
First, the sustainable development of enterprises. Through strategic transformation enterprises can solve the left problem, adapt to the environmental changes [
Second, prominence of status. The enterprises that have completed the strategic transformation have raised their prestige and position in the industry and even become the benchmark for the study of other enterprises. The case enterprises have become the important implementation platform for the Group’s transformation to the financial investment field after the success of the transformation. Its prominent position in the industry [
Third, a new strategic construction and support system. Deng Shaojun verified the case through enterprise transformation, enterprise forming a new strategic concept after the transformation, realizing a new business model and gradually establishing a new strategic support system, including management style, organizational structure and resource allocation, which are good for enterprises to adapt to the environment changes [
This article takes the strategic transformation as the main line, in accordance with the connotation of strategic transformation, the key drivers, the process and the effectiveness of the strategic transformation, based on the combing and induction of the sample literature, this article constructs a basic framework of strategic transformation as shown in
transformation by introducing the multi-theoretical perspective of enterprise resources and capabilities, the characteristics and motivation of managers and the external environment, and focuses on the analysis of the differential impact mechanism of drivers on the key factors of strategic transformation. First of all, the existing research on the driving factors of strategic transformation usually studies only from a single perspective of the internal and external environment or the manager’s subjective motivation, and has not really clarified the mechanism of the strategic transformation of these drivers. The internal and external environment and managers’ subjective motivation are all the important driving forces for the strategic transformation, only by integrating them, can we grasp the driving force of strategic transformation and form a more accurate and clear cognition of its mechanism, then correctly guide the decision-making, and create a positive effect. Therefore, the framework built in this paper highlights the integration research from 3 different perspectives: the internal and external environment, the motivation of managers, and analyzes the influence mechanism of strategic transformation under every perspective. Secondly, judging from the research of strategic transformation, the connotation of strategic transformation lacks a unified definition, which leads to the confusion and misuse of the concepts of strategic transformation and strategic change and so on. Therefore, this article clearly defines the concept of strategic transformation. In addition, the strategic transformation is a systematic process of change, research on the process of strategic transformation is related to the success of the transition, only by opening the “black box” of strategic transformation can we have a deeper understanding of the mechanism and process of transformation so as to ensure the implementation effect of the transition. Therefore, the exploration of transition process is highlighted in the framework constructed in this article, which emphasizes the importance of the transformation process in the research of strategic transformation. Finally, the economic consequences are the main basis for measuring the success of the strategic transformation. However, the measurement should not only include financial performance but also non-financial performance. Therefore, the framework proposed in this paper increases the sustainable development and status prominence in order to supplement the insufficient attention of non-financial performance in current research.
Based on the above analysis, future research can be further expanded in the following aspects:
1) In-depth analysis of the concept of strategic transformation, the development of strategic measurement indicators and scales. The fuzzy definition of the concept of strategic transformation not only constrains the researchers’ comprehension and cognition of the strategic transformation, but also limits the integration between different theories. It is urgent to clearly define the connotation of strategic transformation and make a clear distinction between the concept of strategic transformation, strategic change and strategy Update, and according to the meaning of the strategic transformation unified measurement indicators, develop the scales.
2) Analysis of the cause and mechanism of strategic transformation from a multi-theoretical perspective. Future research can analyze in depth the mechanism of the interaction between the antecedent, process and the effectiveness of strategic transformation, we can try to analyze the three categories summarized in this article, different impact of external motivation, internal motivation and subjective motivation on strategic transformation.
3) Open the “black box” of the strategic transformation process. The process of strategic transformation at this stage is still not clear. There is still a paucity of literature on the mechanism of strategic transformation. Even if there is research on the process of strategic transformation, most of the studies are about the relationship between two single variables, there is no integration of the interrelationships between these variables. And most of the literature on the process of strategic transformation is single-case study, strategic transformation is especially important for enterprise, it is especially necessary to repeat the “quasi-ex- periment” as well as the dynamic analysis and the comparative study of multiple cases to make the conclusion more reliable and accurate.
4) Investigate the identification and control of transformation risk. Strategic transformation is undoubtedly a high-risk activity of the organization. The transformation risk is the key to the transformation. Most of the researches on the transition risk in the sample literature are to discuss the formation, prevention and regularity of the transition risk. In this paper, the recognition and control of transition risk also belong to one of the key elements of the strategic transition, which is related to dynamic capability, organizational learning, management cognition. The relationship between these variables is also a direction of future research.
5) Increase research on the effectiveness of strategic transformation, and focus on the non-financial performance of enterprises. Future research can systematically and deeply study the effectiveness of strategic transformation, especially the non-financial performance of enterprises. In the era of knowledge-based economy, consumers are also paying more and more attention to non-financial indicators. To some extent, these non-financial performances are of great importance to enterprises, the value is immeasurable.
Wu, Y.T. (2018) Literature Review of Strategic Transformation. American Journal of Industrial and Business Management, 8, 221-238. https://doi.org/10.4236/ajibm.2018.82015