Abstract
Despite the increasing and recent interest in researching knowledge ambidexterity, there has been no attempt from scholarly research to map and structure extant research on this topic. The aim of this study is to fill this gap, thereby contributing to previous literature by increasing our understanding of the research on knowledge ambidexterity. This paper employs a systematic literature review analysis on a sample of 20 academic papers extracted from the Web of Science database in June 2021. After illustrating the size, growth trajectory, geographic distribution, and key publishing journals in the sample, the paper analyses the intellectual structure and main foci of the research domain. The results show that this topic emerged in the late 2000s with a boom in research in the last 5 years and a clear predominance of quantitative studies. Moreover, content analysis reveals that both a clear definition of knowledge ambidexterity and its main components, knowledge exploration and exploitation, and a valid and reliable scale for measuring this concept are still lacking. The review has also revealed that the research domain on knowledge ambidexterity can be grouped into three different research lines, each of which relates to a different level of analysis—teams, intraorganisational processes within individual firms, and interorganisational collaborations—and concludes by identifying potential areas for future research on this topic that may help to advance in the consolidation of this particularly vibrant field.
Highlights
This literature review defines the problem to be studied in terms of the following research question: What are the patterns in research literature of knowledge ambidexterity and how did the intellectual structure of the field evolve?
The most common knowledge ambidexterity definition appears to suggest that it is the ability, the strategy, or the capacity of the firm to balance exploration and exploitation of knowledge, which emerge as the main components of this construct
What do knowledge exploration and exploitation encompass? Knowledge management encompasses different processes related to the acquisition, creation, sharing, storage [53], and use of knowledge (e.g., [25]) and that play different roles in a firm’s sustainable competitiveness
Summary
Knowledge and its effective management have emerged as the most crucial competitive assets due to the fact that they bring many positive outcomes to improve learning efficiency and effectiveness to reduce costs [3,4,5], having the potential to affect a firm’s organisational and innovation performance [6,7,8,9,10,11,12]. Throughout history, knowledge management has been extensively applied, ranging from individual learning to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to large multinational firms, in order to understand what information, activities, processes, and strategies are essential to taking full advantage of the value of knowledge [13]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
