Antecedents to Autonomous Strategic Action: What About Decline?

Autonomous strategic actions (ASA) can be a powerful source of strategic renewal. However, not much is known about what triggers middle- and lower-level members of an organization to engage in such bottom-up entrepreneurial activities. This paper aims at narrowing this gap. It empirically studies the role of autonomy and top-management support, as well as declining firm performance and their interplay in triggering middle managers' ASA. Results suggest that the allocation of decision-making rights and the support of top management are important antecedents to ASA, while top-management support is also a moderator of the relationship between performance decline and ASA.