Strategic enablers of service-sales ambidexterity: A preliminary framework and research agenda

Abstract

In recent years, service-sales ambidexterity was proposed as a new type of ambidexterity. In particular, the emerging literature on service-sales ambidexterity builds on the contextual ambidexterity literature to argue that the two key activities of a salesperson – that is, service activities and sales activities – can be simultaneously maximized through finding and exploiting synergies between these two activities. While research in this area has so far focused on the drivers of service-sales ambidexterity, our knowledge regarding the strategic enablers of this construct is impoverished. In this paper, drawing upon the dynamic capabilities framework, we devise a preliminary framework of the strategic enablers of service-sales ambidexterity. Then, we further extend that framework by identifying key classes of strategic variables that can potentially enable service-sales ambidexterity and by providing illustrative examples. This paper has contributions to and implications for the literature on service-sales ambidexterity and dynamic capabilities.