Strategic entrepreneurship: essence and main research directions

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present the analysis of main research directions on strategic entrepreneurship (SE) published in international peer-reviewed journals on management and entrepreneurship in 2001–2016. In order to achieve the purpose, a systematic literature review was conducted. The analysis of 70 publications identified main approaches to strategic entrepreneurship definition, the stages of development, main research directions and suggested possible themes for future studies. There were identified three approaches to the study of strategic entrepreneurship: 1) antecedents of strategic entrepreneurship; 2) impact of SE on firm’s performance; and 3) three-way interaction of antecedents of SE and fi rm’s performance. The mentioned areas of research were evaluated from the perspective of resource-based view which assumes that the competitive advantage and value creation depend on the resources that are created or acquired by a company to implement its strategy, and strategic fit concept that implies a need to align a company strategy with the conditions of external environment. A possible direction for future research in this fieeld is the use of configurational approach to the study of strategic entrepreneurship in order to understand which combination of entrepreneurial and strategic action enables strategic entrepreneurship to be beneficial for the company.