Bridging corporate purpose and strategic renewal: A review and future research agenda

There is growing interest in the strategic role of corporate purpose in processes of strategic renewal, but existing research appears fragmented and offers mixed insights. Some evidence suggests that purpose-driven organizations might be more flexible in navigating change and better able to radically reinvent themselves. Other studies emphasize the path-dependent nature of corporate purpose, conceiving it as a conservative force leading to inertia. Despite the substantial endorsement of the connection between corporate purpose and strategic renewal by practitioners, research lags behind in fully understanding and explaining the role of corporate purpose in strategic renewal processes. This disconnect reflects a broader issue of limited knowledge cumulativity, as fragmented research streams have so far impeded the development of an integrated understanding of these phenomena. To address this issue, this study develops a systematic literature review to identify the links between corporate purpose and strategic renewal across diverse research streams. Building on this analysis, using a design-oriented approach, we organize a research agenda of the purpose-strategic renewal nexus, bridging different and sometimes divergent streams of literature and outlining opportunities to contribute to theoretical advancements across diverse theoretical traditions and empirical contexts. The proposed research agenda is organized around three main objectives: testing and elaborating, contextualizing, and theorizing the relationship between corporate purpose and strategic renewal.