How strategic awareness emerges under institutional constraint: a process model from resource-intensive firms

Purpose This study develops a process model of strategic awareness in resource-intensive firms operating under institutional constraint. It aims to examine how managers interpret overlapping geopolitical and regulatory pressures and how these conditions shape the emergence of strategic awareness as a mechanism for strategic reorientation and opportunity recognition in constrained environments. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on dynamic capabilities and the institutional view, this study analyzes qualitative data from in-depth, semistructured interviews with nine senior and middle managers in the petrochemical industry as a highly resource-intensive context. A grounded theory approach following Strauss and Corbin (1998) is used to inductively trace how organizations make sense of and respond to institutional constraints. Findings The analysis develops a process model in which external constraints actively reconfigure managerial cognition. Geopolitical, regulatory and market pressures disrupt established routines and undermine prior strategic logics, triggering a shift in managerial sensemaking. Strategic awareness emerges as a multilayered cognitive mechanism that enables firms to reinterpret constraints and identify actionable pathways. This transformation culminates in strategic reorientation, as firms realign priorities, reconfigure capabilities and adapt to persistent constraints while uncovering opportunities for resilience and differentiation. Originality/value This study advances a process-based conceptualization of strategic awareness by positioning geopolitical and regulatory pressures as constitutive elements of managerial sensemaking rather than external conditions. Grounded in a resource-intensive and institutionally constrained context, the model offers transferable insights into how firms operating in turbulent environments can enhance decision-making, develop localized capabilities and pursue regional opportunities beyond restricted settings.