Opening Up the Black Box: A Contingent Dual-Process Model of Ambidexterity Emergence

Abstract

While research on contextual ambidexterity has primarily focused on the role of individuals to host exploration-exploitation tensions, the emergence process linking ambidexterity at the individual level and at higher levels of analysis such as the team or organization has not been described. Integrating multilevel theory and the differentiation-integration view of ambidexterity, we suggest a contingent dual process model of ambidexterity emergence. In the case of composition, both integration and differentiation are taking place at the individual level, followed by convergence-based aggregation. In the case of compilation, differentiation takes place at the individual level, followed by divergence-based aggregation and integration at the group level. We further argue, that the relative success of composition and compilation emergence is moderated by the degree of integration mechanisms at the group level. Drawing on multi- informant survey data from 58 teams in a large Swiss insurance company, we find strong support for our theoretical arguments.