Founders love the word pivot.
It signals agility. Adaptability. Strategic intelligence. In startup culture, changing your business model isn’t a red flag — it’s often a badge of honor.
But what if frequent reinvention is quietly slowing your growth?
A research by CBISS member Professor Sukanlaya Sawang and her colleagues suggests exactly that. In a three-year longitudinal study tracking nearly 600 young firms, they examined how business model renewal affects performance over time — and how a founder’s mindset shapes the outcome.
Their findings complicate one of entrepreneurship’s most celebrated narratives: while high-performing firms do tend to change more, repeated business model renewal can actually decelerate growth.
In other words, adaptation helps — until it doesn’t.
The Paradox of Renewal
At first glance, the data confirms what we expect. Companies that perform well early on are more likely to tweak and refine their business models. Success creates confidence. Momentum fuels experimentation.
But over time, a different pattern emerges.
Firms that repeatedly altered their business models experienced slower growth trajectories — both in perceived performance and in actual profit growth.
Why would that happen?
Because change is expensive. Not just financially, but cognitively and organizationally.
Every meaningful shift resets execution. Teams realign. Resources move. Customers adjust. Learning curves restart. Strategic focus diffuses. Even well-intentioned change can interrupt the compounding effect of steady execution.
The issue isn’t renewal itself. It’s recurrence.
As Sawang and her co-authors show, more change does not automatically mean faster growth.
The Psychological Variable No One Talks About
What makes this research especially compelling is its psychological lens.
Drawing on regulatory focus theory, the study distinguishes between two types of entrepreneurial mindsets:
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Promotion-focused founders, driven by growth, gains, and opportunity.
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Prevention-focused founders, driven by security, risk management, and loss avoidance.
Both groups engage in business model renewal. But the consequences differ.
The Promotion Trap
Promotion-oriented founders see stronger initial boosts from change. They move boldly, pursue opportunity, and aim high.
Yet over time, their growth rates slow more sharply.
Why?
Because bold change requires bold investment. Radical shifts demand capital, attention, and time. And promotion-focused leaders tend to set ambitious performance expectations — sometimes so ambitious that incremental gains feel disappointing.
The result: high effort, high ambition, slower perceived momentum.
Ironically, the very mindset associated with entrepreneurship — opportunity-seeking and risk-taking — may amplify the growth slowdown that follows repeated renewal.
The Prevention Buffer
Prevention-focused founders, by contrast, make more incremental changes. Their expectations are measured. Their adjustments are cautious.
They don’t see dramatic early spikes in performance. But they also avoid the steep slowdowns.
Their mindset appears to buffer them against overextension. By prioritizing stability and minimizing downside risk, they preserve execution continuity.
Rethinking the “Always Pivot” Narrative
Startup culture celebrates motion. Investors praise adaptability. Accelerators preach iteration.
But Sawang and her colleagues’ research invites a more nuanced view.
Yes, renewal can drive improvement. But too many shifts can interrupt compounding growth.
The most effective founders may not be the ones who pivot the most. They may be the ones who understand when to stabilize — and allow execution to mature.
A Better Set of Questions
Instead of asking, “Should we pivot?” leaders might ask:
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Are we solving a genuine strategic constraint — or reacting to impatience?
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Is this renewal building on momentum or resetting it?
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Are our expectations distorting how we interpret progress?
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Is our mindset driving disciplined adaptation — or restless reinvention?
Adaptability remains critical. Markets evolve. Technology shifts. Customers change.
But disciplined adaptation — anchored in psychological self-awareness — may outperform constant reinvention.
The takeaway is clear:
Growth is not just a function of strategy.
It is also a function of mindset.
And sometimes, the greatest threat to performance isn’t standing still.
It’s moving too often.
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