Small Firm Survival and Growth Strategies in a Disrupted Declining Industry

Schumpeter’s theory of creative destruction argues that technological innovation facilitates the growth of innovative new firms and causes the demise of old-technology firms. But not all disrupted firms wither and die – rather, some survive and grow by utilizing strategic entrepreneurship. Whereas the strategic entrepreneurship of disrupter firms has received considerable research interest, the strategies that disrupted firms use to avoid elimination in a disrupted declining industry have been afforded relatively little attention. This paper reports on a qualitative grounded research study of firms in the disrupted printing industry and reveals three main strategies used by survivors: namely, reconfiguration of external networks; exploitation of the untapped potential of intangible assets; and the rebalancing of legacy product exploitation and new product exploration. Propositions are developed regarding entrepreneurial strategies that disrupted incumbents may utilize to survive in disrupted industries.