Leading the (r)evolution: Succession and leadership rules for re-entrepreneurs

Robert McEnany and David Strutton

Business Horizons, 2015, vol. 58, issue 4, 401-410

Abstract: During the next decade-plus, thousands of Baby Boomer entrepreneurs will retire, usually without formal succession plans. Next-generation relatives, former employees, or outsiders will assume leadership of these now-mature enterprises, hopefully bringing their own visions and initiatives and becoming, in every sense, re-entrepreneurs. Re-entrepreneurship describes a process through which a mature enterprise can be made new again. Re-entrepreneurial leaders will encounter challenges that differ radically from those confronted by traditional entrepreneurial leaders. Re-entrepreneurial initiatives necessarily should begin with new visions of what mature organizations might do to become new again; will succeed only if stakeholders commit to that vision; and should culminate with reimagined, restaged, and revitalized enterprises. To secure re-entrepreneurial outcomes, three framing principles are proposed. Each principle is rooted in the theory of Joseph Schumpeter, the godfather of entrepreneurism and creative destruction. Seven re-entrepreneurial rules follow. While grounded in entrepreneurial theory, each rule is based primarily on experiential lessons shared by re-entrepreneurial executives who have previously assumed leadership succession roles inside mature organizations—and subsequently reimagined, restaged, and revitalized, ultimately renewing their firms.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Re-entrepreneurship; Succession; Leadership; Schumpeter; (R)evolution; Culture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:bushor:v:58:y:2015:i:4:p:401-410

DOI: 10.1016/j.bushor.2015.03.005

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