Corporate Entrepreneurship and Real Options in Transitional Policy Environments: Theory Development

ABSTRACT We develop a theoretical framework for describing, modelling, and predicting entrepreneurial strategies by corporations in transitional public policy environments. Drawing on research in entrepreneurship, real options, and strategic management under uncertainty, we demonstrate how corporations affected by government policy can use entrepreneurial strategies to exploit discontinuities generated by uncertain and unstable public policy environments. We argue that specific strategies will be effective depending on the degree and slope/inflection profile of policy change. Four strategies are identified: preemptive, optioned, synchronized, and adaptive. We develop propositions and provide illustrations to show how each of these strategies has helped firms respond to transitional policy environments. We conclude by offering a discussion of the utility and limitations of the framework and its potential application to other managerial circumstances in which uncertainty is pervasive, and by describing opportunities for further research, including empirical testing of our model.