Ambidextrous Sustainability, Organisational Structure, and Performance in Hybrid Organisations

Abstract

Based on the case of Swedish municipal housing corporation, this study explores how ambidextrous sustainability relates to the organisational performance of these hybrid organisations and how this relationship is contingent on the organisational structure of these organisations. The study is based on the multiple data sources comprising a case on Swedish municipal housing corporations. The data sources consist of the survey sent to all top management team members of Swedish municipal housing corporations, archival data containing financial and non-financial data on these corporations as well as explorative interviews and observations of the top management team and board of directors members of one Swedish municipal housing corporation. The findings suggest that ambidextrous sustainability, i.e. balance between explorative and exploitative sustainability orientation has a positive relationship with the organisational performance of Swedish municipal housing corporations. The paper further indicates that structural element of centralisation has a positive direct relationship with the performance of these organisations and serves a positive re-enforcing role in the relationship between ambidextrous sustainability and organisational performance. Finally, the study shows that a high degree of a structural element of connectedness weakens the relationship between ambidextrous sustainability and organisational performance of the organisation under study, while a lower degree of connectedness reinforces and strengthen this relationship.