Professional Assessment of Corporate Entrepreneurship and Strategic Renewal in Nigerian Conglomerates

Corporate entrepreneurship enables large organisations to renew their strategic positions through internal venture creation and innovation, and its professional assessment within Nigerian conglomerates provides evidence for competitive strategy improvement in a disrupted economic environment. This study assessed corporate entrepreneurship practices and their relationship with strategic renewal outcomes in eight Nigerian conglomerates with diversified portfolios, including Dangote Group, BUA Group, UAC of Nigeria, Transcorp, FBN Holdings, Julius Berger, Flour Mills of Nigeria, and Okomu Oil Palm. Corporate entrepreneurship was measured using the Corporate Entrepreneurship Assessment Instrument covering innovation, risk-taking, proactiveness, competitive aggressiveness, and autonomy dimensions. Strategic renewal was assessed by new business unit creation, core business reinvention, and market expansion activities over 2020 to 2023. Data were collected from 60 senior executives and divisional heads through structured interviews and questionnaires. Regression analysis and content analysis of annual reports were employed. Results showed that proactiveness was the strongest corporate entrepreneurship dimension predicting strategic renewal (beta = 0.51, p < 0.001). Conglomerates that created dedicated corporate venture units achieved 2.4 times higher new business unit creation rates than those relying solely on organic divisional innovation. Risk-taking culture was significantly associated with market expansion activity (beta = 0.44, p < 0.01). Three of eight conglomerates showed innovation theatrics rather than substantive entrepreneurial activity, identified through outcome benchmarking. The study concludes that genuine proactive corporate entrepreneurship, supported by dedicated venture creation structures, produces meaningful strategic renewal in Nigerian conglomerates and recommends the Nigerian Board of Corporate Governance integrate corporate entrepreneurship governance into its guidance framework. Keywords: corporate entrepreneurship, strategic renewal, Nigerian conglomerates, innovation, proactiveness