Ambidexterity Research Research Articles

Profiling dan pemetaan riset innovation ambidexterity melalui pendekatan bibliometrik

This study aims to provide a comprehensive picture of current conditions and future research potential in innovative ambidexterity research. To achieve this goal, this study uses a bibliometric approach, the data sources used are secondary data sources, where the data used is in the form of 81 research articles taken in the Scopus database. In addition, selected articles are published by well-known publishers, namely Elsevier, Inderscience Publishers, Springer, Emerald, Routledge, Cogent, and Sage Publications. The results of the co-occurrence analysis and thematic map outline various emerging research topics in its clusters. Dimanqa cluster 1 covers issues such as Construction Industry, Corporate Social Responsibility, Environmental Innovation, Finance, Functional Laterity, Hemispheric Dominance, Human Resources Management, Management Practice, Manufacturing, Microfoundation, Open Innovation, Performance, Social Capital, and Sustainability. Cluster 2 raised topics such as business development, competitiveness, digital transformation, information management, information processing, innovation performance, investment, marketing, organizational framework, performance assessment, regression analysis, social network, and sustainability development. Meanwhile, cluster 3 highlights The third cluster consists of empirical analysis, entrepreneurial orientation, exploitation, exploration, industrial performance, intellectual capital, pharmaceutical industry, strategic entrepreneuship, technological development. The fourth cluster consists of business performance, dynamic capabilities, enterprise resource management, industrial management, information analysis, knowledge management, knowledge transfer, least squares approxima, radical innovation. Meanwhile, the fifth cluster consists of connectedness, decision making, environmental dynamis, firm performance, knowledge management, technological innovation, top management team. The sixth cluster consists of absortive capacity, business process performance, exploitative innovation, exploration innovation, and Small Medium Enteprise. And, the seventh cluster consists of competitive intensity. Future research themes in the realm of innovation ambidexterity can be presented or connected with strategic entrepreneurship, exploitative innovation, digital transformation, and innovation performance.

Organizational Ambidexterity: A Review and Research Agenda

We review the literature on organizational ambidexterity using the hybrid review approach, which integrates bibliometric analysis with a framework-based review. We provide directions for future studies by identifying key gaps in the existing literature. The bibliometric analysis provides the trends and progress of the research field through citation analysis, analysis of keyword co-occurrence, and other bibliometric indicators such as most influential journals, countries, and authors. The TCCM (Theories, Contexts, Characteristics, and Methodology) framework helps us to identify the widely used theories, constructs, and methods in ambidexterity research and provides new avenues for future research by analyzing the most used theories, methods, constructs, and research contexts. We suggest that future researchers should explore the behavioral components of firms’ environment as an antecedent factor and there should be more emphasis on summarization of the divergent views pertaining to ambidexterity enablers. In addition to identifying the key research themes and knowledge structure of organizational ambidexterity, this review would help to create a value to the ambidexterity literature in terms of quantification and consolidation of research evolution. This is the first comprehensive literature review using hybrid approach (bibliometric review with TCCM framework) in the field of organizational ambidexterity research.

Regulatory Focus, Ambidextrous Learning, and Opportunity Recognition in New Product Development

This study focuses on individual managers’ ambidextrous learning and examines its psychological antecedents and consequences in the new product development (NPD) context. Specifically, drawing on the paradox theory and the regulatory focus theory, this study examines the relationship between regulatory focus (i.e., promotion focus and prevention focus), ambidextrous learning, and NPD opportunity recognition, from the individual ambidexterity perspective. Based on the survey data of 225 NPD managers in high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises in China, we find that NPD managers’ promotion focus and prevention focus, acting as an enabler and a deterrent respectively, affect their ambidextrous learning, which in turn facilitates opportunity recognition in the NPD process. Further analyses reveal that ambidextrous learning mediates the effects of promotion focus and prevention focus on opportunity recognition in the NPD. Our findings offer new insights on the individual ambidexterity research regarding the unique role of ambidextrous learning, manifested as actionable managerial capability. The findings offer novel insights on the role of NPD managers’ ambidextrous learning in the NPD process, and practical implications for NPD managers to self-regulate their behavior for the benefit of opportunity recognition.

What makes innovation ambidexterity manageable: a systematic review, multi-level model and future challenges

Innovation ambidexterity has emerged as a primary interest in management research due to the strategy’s support for adaptability and flexibility pursuant to competitiveness. While management studies investigate and explicate the socioeconomic and technological challenges of ambidexterity, there is a gap in knowledge on the determinants that underpin the management of ambidextrous organisations. To tackle this paucity, this article uses a systematic approach to review existing literature on innovation ambidexterity, identifying the main determinants for managing ambidexterity in organisations, and setting an agenda for future management research informed by these determinants. The review assembles and critically appraises 121 articles published between 2007 and 2021. It examines the research clusters, investigated industry sectors, research methodologies, management theories, and research contributions of studies on innovation ambidexterity. The review finds seven main determinants for managing ambidexterity consisting of: (i) process mechanisms, (ii) organisational learning, (iii) leadership styles, (iv) technology investments, (v) organisational contexts, (vi) environmental uncertainties, and (vii) institutional pressures. Using insights from the review process, the article proposes a set of management priorities and suggests seven areas for future ambidexterity research with respect to digital interdependence, organisational legacy, stewardship behaviour, technology sourcing, organisational resilience, environmental readiness, and institutional transformation. Theoretically, the article contributes to knowledge via a multi-level ‘wheel’ model of ambidexterity management that links management determinants to priorities, and managerially, the review offers a fresh perspective on management factors for ambidexterity.

Exploring the determinants of ambidexterity in the context of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs): A meta-analytical review

AbstractDecades of ambidexterity research have gained huge scholarly attention from diverse research areas like marketing, organizational learning, innovation management, supply chain management, strategy, and entrepreneurship. However, it has been observed that past studies do not provide a quantitative assessment of ambidexterity determinants applicable to small and medium firms. In response, this study attempts to address this gap by providing an extensive list of eight determinants that are significantly related to Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) ambidexterity. We employed Random effects meta-analytical procedure to examine the combined effect sizes of each determinant. The analysis was based on 37 empirical publications from 2004 to 2021, involving 8422 SME observations and 48 correlations. The findings of the meta-analysis revealed that all the considered determinants such as Knowledge management, Entrepreneurial orientation, Formalization, Market orientation, Networking, Technological capability, Organization context, and Environmental dynamism are heterogeneous, and they all exert a significant positive impact on ambidexterity.

An SLR of firm ambidexterity: organizing a future research path forward

PurposeGiven that the literature in terms of business ambidexterity is continually growing, the of this paper is to identify the future research suggestions made by several authors with regard to ambidexterity and to group them into meaningful themes.Design/methodology/approachA systematic literature review (SLR) of peer reviewed journal articles in the field of ambidexterity was conducted. A total of 128 relevant articles were selected, which were published in 58 journals over the past 2 decades (2000–2021).FindingsThe plethora of the future research suggestions made by several authors with regard to ambidexterity are analytically presented. Moreover, based on these suggestions, meaningful future research themes were revealed and these were further classified into three broad categories, namely “factors influencing the adoption of ambidexterity and its success”, “the types of ambidexterity” and “the effects of ambidexterity”.Research limitations/implicationsThe subjectivity of grouping the future research suggestions into themes as well as not examining the interrelationships among these themes, are limitations of the present study. Based on these limitations, future literature review studies can be conducted.Practical implicationsAs this is a SLR focusing on developing future ambidexterity research themes, there are no direct practitioner implications. However, practitioners may benefit from future research prompted by this SLR.Originality/valueThis study contributes to management literature by suggesting future research not only on organizational ambidexterity like previous studies, but also on four different approaches to ambidexterity.

The role of ambidextrous leadership in developing team-level ambidexterity: Exploring the supporting roles of reflective conversations and ambidextrous HRM

ABSTRACT This study highlights how constructs of importance to management in Africa – ambidextrous leadership and team learning – can extend or modify our existing management theories. Adopting an exploratory design with an interpretive philosophy, this study explores how supermarket store managers engage their subordinates in team learning sessions to enable their collective ambidexterity, facilitated by the presence of reflective conversations (RC) and ambidextrous human resource management (HRM) policies and practices. Based on our raw data, we develop a process-based model that shows how ambidextrous leadership behaviors can help develop team-level ambidexterity, including the supporting roles of RC and ambidextrous HRM practices in the process. This model thus seeks to motivate theoretically future ambidexterity research in Africa, as the theoretical ideas and themes in this study can be replicated and be broadly applied to future ambidexterity research on the continent. This model will, therefore, contribute to the theoretical development of African management literature and, accordingly, adds significant value to the mainstream ambidexterity literature.

Tackling Strategic Simultaneity: What NATO Could Do to Adapt to the New Multitude of Threats

NATO is facing an unprecedented geostrategic environment characterized by simultaneous threats: Russian revisionism, the rise of China, the related problem of coping with threats in the cyber domain, and persistent challenges emanating from the southern flank. This article applies insights from the literature on organizational ambidexterity to provide a fresh perspective on how NATO could adapt to strategic simultaneity. Exisiting organizational ambidexterity literature focuses on the corporate challenge of striking a balance between exploiting existing markets and technologies, and exploring new ones altogether. In essence, strategic simultaneity demands that NATO do the same. NATO must cope with well-known and less-known threats and strike the right balance between effectiveness in handling known problems and innovation in coping with new ones. The article extracts three key categories from the strategic ambidexterity research: unified senior leadership; separate organizational units for exploitation and innovation; and a strategic approach to pursuing innovation through external partnerships. Applying these to NATO, it argues that, in order to become more ambidextrous, the organization’s major countries must unite around a vision that both places simultaneity at the center and is conducive to a balanced investment in tackling all four major challenges. While Allied Command Transformation (ACT) must be maintained as a distinct organizational unit, much stronger bridges must be built between ACT and the other commands. Further, NATO Centers of Excellence and external partnerships must be used in a more targeted way as sources of innovation and new ideas.

Effects of the manager's goal orientation on frontline service employees' service–sales ambidexterity conversion

PurposeAmbidextrous frontline service employees (FSEs), capable of delivering quality services and carrying out sales responsibilities too, are crucial to service firms. This study seeks to extend ambidexterity research by examining how a manager's goal orientation could influence FSEs' ambidextrous conversion. The authors draw on achievement goal theory and conceptualize a link between a manager's achievement goal orientation and employees' service–sales ambidexterity (SSA). The authors then apply conservation of resources theory to complement this high-level conceptualization, hypothesize mediating roles of important resources that can facilitate employees' SSA, and the authors test them empirically.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts a questionnaire survey design. The empirical test relies on multilevel path analyses of dyadic data from 341 FSEs and 39 managers of a major logistics service company in Taiwan.FindingsManagers with a prominent learning goal orientation can facilitate and foster FSEs' SSA through developmental inducements and change-related self-efficacy, two important resources for their ambidextrous conversion. Managers with a strong performance-avoid goal orientation instead might hinder employees' SSA conversion, due to a negative impact on developmental inducements. Furthermore, SSA enhances FSEs' service delivery value and sales performance.Originality/valueBy analyzing and empirically testing the influence pathways of essential resources perceived by FSEs, which channel the effects of a manager's goal orientation to employees' SSA conversion, this study offers insights about how managers can support and foster FSEs' service–sales ambidextrous conversion.

How to Facilitate Knowledge Ambidexterity with the Use of Enterprise Social Media

Organizations that operate under uncertainty need to cultivate their ability to manage their primary resource, knowledge, accordingly. Under such conditions, organizations are required to harvest knowledge from two sources: to explore knowledge that is to be found outside the organization as well as exploit knowledge that is contained within. In a knowledge management context these exploitation and exploration activities have been conceptualized as knowledge ambidexterity.
 While ambidexterity has been studied extensively in contexts as manufacturing or IT, the notion of knowledge ambidexterity remains scarce in current knowledge management research. This study illustrates knowledge ambidexterity and elaborates its positive impact on organizational performance. Our study furthermore answers the question of how the use of enterprise social media (ESM) can facilitate the performance effects of knowledge ambidexterity. Drawing on the theory of communication visibility, we argue that ESM (e.g., Microsoft Teams, Slack, etc.) allow employees to communicate unhindered while making these communications visible. This allows for capturing tacit knowledge within these communications - this form of knowledge is generally hard to codify and can be a source of competitive edge. With respect to knowledge ambidexterity, ESM use can capture tacit knowledge aspects originating from inside and outside the organization, which fosters the development of a competitive advantage and, thus, supports its positive effect on organizational performance.
 This paper contributes to IT-enabled ambidexterity research in two aspects: (1) It sheds light on knowledge ambidexterity and, thereby, addresses a major practical challenge for knowledge-intensive organizations, and (2) it elaborates on the effects that ESM use can have on the relationship between knowledge ambidexterity and organizational performance. This work-in-progress paper offers a better understanding of the phenomenon of ambidexterity in a knowledge context, while providing insights on the facilitating role of ESM. Our research serves as a foundation for future empirical examinations of the concept of knowledge ambidexterity.

Review of Organizational Ambidexterity Research

The main objective of this research is to investigate how organizational ambidexterity can be achieved at a modern organization. A concise review of key studies conducted until today consolidates the state of academic research on the subject of organizational ambidexterity, as the ambidexterity concept has been gaining increased attention from scholars. The systematic search of the literature published since 1991, composed of 122 articles, has revealed various research perspectives with respect to organizational ambidexterity. The research tools that have been employed were the systematic data collection processes, qualitative data analysis techniques, and data synthesis of the selected research output. The results of this review have shown that researchers have been studying ambidexterity from various angles and in various literature streams. They have been focusing on multiple external and internal organizational factors that affect ambidexterity and have been analyzing these moderators in terms of performance metrics and degree of their influence on ambidexterity. This study concludes with future research directions and propositions on the subject of organizational ambidexterity.

Synergistic partners: How HRM and leadership climate shape employees’ ambidextrous behavior

Recent advancements in ambidexterity research suggest that HRM plays a vital role in shaping contextual ambidexterity. Building on social information processing theory, the present study extends this literature by putting the spotlight on two fundamental, yet often implicit assumptions of contextual ambidexterity. First, we examine how HRM practices that are specifically designed to promote ambidextrous cues (i.e., ambidexterity-oriented HRM [A-HRM] practices) are related to contextual ambidexterity. Second, we address the premise that such HRM practices actually affect all employees in an organization. In addition, we introduce transformational leadership (TFL) climate as a critical boundary condition that helps to translate paradoxical signals of A-HRM practices to the employees. We tested these relationships in a multi-source sample of 16,740 employees from 94 organizations and found support for the proposed interaction effect of A-HRM and TFL climate on employees’ ambidextrous behavior and, in turn, organizational performance (i.e., indirect effects). Our study contributes to a better understanding of creating contextual ambidexterity and the important role of leaders in the implementation of A-HRM practices.

Antecedents enabling team ambidexterity: moving beyond mere microfoundation

PurposeAmbidexterity in teams represents powerful dynamic capabilities for innovation and adaptation in rapidly changing environments. This study focused on the emerging concept of team ambidexterity. Primary purposes were to consolidate emerging research on ambidexterity within teams and to synthesise antecedent inputs.Design/methodology/approachThis study applied a systematic content-based review method to collect articles relevant to enabling ambidexterity within teams. The study integrated relevant studies on ambidexterity and on teams and teamwork. It analysed content through theoretical frameworks of ambidexterity and dynamic capabilities.FindingsTeam ambidexterity constitutes a distinct and increasingly important organisational concept beyond just supporting firm-level ambidexterity. Team ambidexterity depends on inputs that can include ambidexterity's multilevel, generic mechanisms and additional team-centric inputs specially characterising teams.Practical implicationsOrganisational leaders need insights into the valuable potential of ambidextrous teams that can increase innovation and enable successful adaptation at an operational level for longterm survival and competitive advantage in volatile environments. The study highlights the essential inputs for designing and equipping ambidextrous teams.Originality/valueTeam ambidexterity research is growing, but so far it has mostly addressed team ambidexterity as a microfoundation supporting firm-level ambidexterity. Existing studies have remained mostly disparate and unorganized. This study appears unique in having identified and synthesised studies most relevant to developing ambidexterity within teams. The study articulated a more comprehensive understanding of team ambidexterity, derived a novel set of team-centric inputs and analysed ambidexterity as dynamic capabilities at operational unit level.

Design thinking implementation for innovation: An organization's journey to ambidexterity

AbstractImplementing design thinking for innovation (DTI) is seen as a way to balance exploration and exploitation, and thus attain an ambidextrous innovation portfolio. Yet, transitioning to ambidexterity is challenging, and is often met with inertia. So how can managers implement DTI as a path toward ambidextrous innovation? In this article, based on an in‐depth longitudinal case study of a leading Australian property development firm and drawing on rich primary and secondary data collected over four years, we examine how middle managers leveraged DTI to respond to inertia generatively, and how this process helped shift the cognitive frame of the organization toward ambidexterity. In our case, the middle manager implemented three DTI practices—(1) creative problem‐solving, (2) sprint execution, and (3) creative confidence— to transition the organization's cognitive frame from an explorative to exploitative, to ultimately an ambidextrous innovation frame. Our argument is that these DTI practices trigger three generative mechanisms—frame flexibility, co‐optation, and collective sensemaking—to support this transition. Drawing on these insights, we develop a process framework of how different DT practices and related generative mechanisms can be deployed flexibly to adapt to the interim (explorative and exploitative) innovation objectives over time. We argue that freezing the innovation frame in each phase can trigger a generative response to inertia, which enables the organization to transition more radically to an ambidextrous innovation portfolio. We thus contribute to the limited design thinking research on the role of cognition in DTI implementation, and more generally to innovation management and ambidexterity research on how leveraging DTI to achieve an ambidextrous innovation portfolio is an emergent and adaptive process.

Fostering Ambidextrous Innovation Strategies in Large Infrastructure Projects: A Team Heterogeneity Perspective

In emerging economies, infrastructure projects are in full swing. There is a wealth of replicable experience for exploitation. Simultaneously, more technologies and methodologies require further exploration. This makes fostering ambidextrous innovation strategies (i.e., the tradeoff between exploitative and exploratory innovation strategies) a common and vital practical issue. Large infrastructure projects are unique one-off endeavors but have somewhat repetitive and persistent characteristics. It is a particular “intermediate” form between temporary projects and permanent organizations. Previous research on fostering ambidextrous innovation strategies cannot simply be replicated in large infrastructure projects. To address this issue, this article investigates the relationship between team heterogeneity and ambidextrous innovation strategies and also the role of team learning and identification in large infrastructure projects. Data were collected from 269 responses from 31 large infrastructure project delivery teams in China. The findings show that team heterogeneity has a positive linear effect on exploratory and ambidextrous innovation strategies and an inverted U-shaped effect on exploitative innovation strategies; team heterogeneity can better foster ambidextrous innovation strategies through improving team learning; the moderating role of team identification in the overall mechanism differs from the usual assumptions in permanent organizations. Overall, this article extends the existing ambidexterity research in the “intermediate” form between temporary projects and permanent organizations. It provides insights and guidance on fostering ambidextrous innovation strategies in large infrastructure projects.

Organizational ambidexterity: antecedents, performance and environmental uncertainty

PurposeThis paper is to examine whether organizational ambidexterity leads to success. Moreover, it attempts to understand how proactiveness and quality orientation might create and maintain ambidexterity. Environmental uncertainty as a moderator is also examined.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve these objectives an empirical survey was conducted among 449 firms in Greece. Initially, EFA and then CFA were applied. Finally, the structural relationships among the latent factors were determined through SEM.FindingsOrganizational ambidexterity leads to superior business performance, moreover, the two antecedents were positively related to organizational ambidexterity. Environmental uncertainty acts as a moderator between organizational ambidexterity– business performance and proactiveness–organizational ambidexterity.Research limitations/implicationsA research challenge is to understand how organizations develop ambidexterity competency in different organizational structure. Moreover, it will be important to expand the model by taking into consideration different factors of antecedents, for example, type of innovation or different strategic orientations.Practical implicationsThis study sends the message that companies focussing on specific antecedents can be led to higher ambidexterity capabilities, which in turn act as a catalyst for business improvement.Originality/valueThe proposed model provides plausible guidelines that advance organizational ambidexterity research in the companies.

Reduced to the max: firm performance and organizational ambidexterity research

PurposeFor nearly three decades, numerous scholars have searched for a robust relationship between firm performance and organizational ambidexterity—so far with questionable results. The aim of this short essay is thus to critically examine the performance of applied performance measurements.Design/methodology/approachAfter discussing methodological issues and revealing a conceptually neglected “level” distinction in organizational ambidexterity studies, we contribute to conceptual clarity as to whether exploration and exploitation ought to be conceived as continuous or orthogonal.FindingsFirst, even if the dichotomy of exploration and exploitation is orthogonally conceptualized, at least one trade-off, either on the level of the explanans or the level of the explanandum, can be bypassed but cannot conceptually be denied. Second, we conclude that explaining overall firm performance with the relation of just two variables (exploration and exploitation)—referring to the inherently conflicting title of this paper, “Reduced to the Max”—is a hazardous endeavor.Research limitations/implicationsBased on these insights, future research may benefit from studying organizational ambidexterity and firm performance more qualitatively and paying more attention to the declared level distinction.Originality/valueThe paper reveals a crucial neglect of level and provides an answer to one of the core questions of organizational ambidexterity research: that of continuity vs orthogonality.

Synergistic Partners: How HRM and Leadership Climate Shape Employees’ Ambidextrous Behavior

Recent advancements in ambidexterity research suggest that HRM plays a vital role in shaping contextual ambidexterity. Building on paradox theory and social information processing theory, the present study extends this literature by putting the spotlight on two fundamental, yet often implicit assumptions of contextual ambidexterity. First, we examine how HRM practices that are specifically designed to promote ambidextrous cues (i.e., ambidexterity-oriented HRM [A-HRM] practices) are related to contextual ambidexterity. Second, we address the premise that such HRM practices actually affect all employees in an organization. In addition, we introduce transformational leadership (TFL) climate as a critical boundary condition that helps to translate paradoxical signals of A-HRM practices to the employees. We tested these relationships in a multi-source sample of 16,740 employees from 94 organizations and found support for the proposed interaction effect of A-HRM and TFL climate on employees’ ambidextrous behavior and, in turn, organizational performance (i.e., indirect effects). Our study contributes to a better understanding of creating contextual ambidexterity and the important role of leaders in the implementation of A-HRM practices.

A Bibliometric Analysis of Two Decades of Global Research on Organizational Ambidexterity using the Scopus Database

Modern organizations face dynamism and due to which come across various performance challenges. Ambidexterity, which is the organizational balance among exploration and exploitation related activities, has gained significant attention in recent times on a global scale and is applicable in multiple domains. To advance the organizational ambidexterity understanding in an integrated and holistic manner, the current bibliometric analysis evaluates the globally published research conducted on organizational ambidexterity incorporating varied expressions. Using the Scopus database, the current research accumulated 282 journal articles from 1996 until 2018. The analysis of this research highlights, organizational ambidexterity research publications experienced a considerable upward momentum since year 2014 and onwards, with more than 40 papers per annum between 2015-2018. Top contributing institutions in organizational ambidexterity domain come from the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Spain, and Italy. Moreover, top-cited papers are from authors in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Netherlands. Most importantly, VOS viewer software is used to analyze co-authorship, author keyword co-occurrences, and network strength. The United States and the United Kingdom have the strongest link strength, followed by Canada, China, and South Korea, and Norway.

Ambidexterity in the age of asset sharing: Development of dynamic capabilities in open source ecosystems

Evidence suggests the growing importance of interorganizational relationships in developing intrapreneurial capabilities. In this paper, we argue that exploitation- and exploration-oriented network ties strengthen intrapreneurial capabilities in dynamic environments. To do so, we integrate the underlying assumptions of asset positions in the dynamic capabilities perspective with the open innovation perspective to highlight the implications of interorganizational ties for value capturing and value creating. The resulting model is discussed using the open source ecosystem as a context that exemplifies the complexities of the symbiotic relationships among network actors in the software industry. This study makes several contributions. First, we contribute to research on intrapreneurial capabilities by explicating the role of different types of network ties in recognizing and leveraging opportunities. Second, we extend the scope of the dynamic capabilities literature by integrating a network perspective to reconceptualize asset positioning in the context of value co-creation and co-capture. Third, we address the complexities associated with intellectual property rights in sharing assets through different forms of network ties. Lastly, we link the dynamic capabilities literature with ambidexterity research by offering insights on how asset sharing can facilitate the simultaneous development of capabilities related to both exploration and exploitation in dynamic environments.