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Although social networks play an important role in individual ambidexterity, few studies have examined the impact of salespeople's social networks on sales-service ambidexterity. The purpose of this paper is to explore how salespeople's internal and external social networks affect sales-service ambidexterity.

The unique data of 331 salespeople from 39 units in retail banking industry and insurance industry were collected, and the hierarchical linear model was adopted to test the hypotheses. Finally, the alternative measure of the dependent variable and the alternative estimation method were adopted for robustness test.

The results show that the strength of salespeople's internal social networks and the extensiveness of salespeople's external social networks could facilitate sales-service ambidexterity of salespeople separately and synergistically. Salespeople's role breadth self-efficacy partially mediates the influences of internal and external social networks on sales-service ambidexterity, while empowerment climate and transformational leadership positively moderate the aforementioned mediational process by strengthening the relationship between salespeople's role breadth self-efficacy and sales-service ambidexterity.

Practical guidelines are provided for managers to shape ambidextrous salespeople by facilitating salespeople's internal and external social networks, promoting transformational leadership and creating empowerment climate within the unit.

To the best of the author's knowledge, this paper is the first to systematically examine the impact of salespeople's social network on sales-service ambidexterity. Drawing from social cognitive theory and the ambidexterity literature, this research reveals the mechanism of how salespeople's internal and external social networks contribute to sales-service ambidexterity.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of social capital on organizational ambidexterity in the context of emerging economies. Moreover, this paper aims to study the moderating influence of absorptive capacity on the relationship between social capital and organizational ambidexterity.

The authors conducted two studies using survey data collected from 97 Ecuadorian and 100 Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The authors found that social capital, the extent to which organizational members interact, collaborate and share knowledge with one another and with external actors, has a positive effect on the simultaneous implementation of exploratory and exploitative innovations (i.e. organizational ambidexterity). Moreover, the authors found that absorptive capacity positively strengthens the impact of social capital on organizational ambidexterity.

Drawing on the knowledge-based view and the innovation literature, the authors theoretically argue the importance of social capital and absorptive capacity for SMEs to develop and manage exploratory and exploitative innovations simultaneously in emerging economies of different cultures. The authors empirically test proposed hypotheses in Ecuador and China, two emerging markets with important cultural differences, and show the relevance of social capital in multiple settings.

The manager of the 21st century is expected to succeed in an environment strongly characterized by unprecedented volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA). In fact, today’s business environment consists of contradictory pressure and tensions, where competitive advantage could be gained by ambidextrous activities. The concept of ambidexterity has already been discussed by many scholars, but still little is known about managerial practice and actions that are useful for finding the balance between the paradoxes that have been identified at that level. Although there are different tensions, dynamic and evolving according to the changes observed in the environment: more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous, the pressure to remain flexible and simultaneously maintain the plan of development, seems to be essential. In recent research studies, networking perspective is mentioned as one of areas worth exploring while analyzing the concept of ambidexterity. For that reason, the main goal of this chapter is to investigate if networking is one of the factors useful for managing ambidexterity. To gain deeper insight, we investigated further, searching for the factors essential for managing ambidexterity: we compared the research results between companies of different sizes to identify any regularities. We focused on ambidexterity reflected by managerial practice where stability/plans and flexibility are implemented simultaneously. We investigated 150 managers using paper-and-pencil interviewing. Our research results confirmed that networking could be one of the main approaches having an impact on ambidextrous activities. However, we cannot conclude that companies are obliged to apply a networking perspective to be ambidextrous, although it could be recommended. Further analysis of companies of different sizes revealed the relationship between ambidexterity and networking in case of small and large companies, and no relation in medium-sized enterprises.

This study aims to provide empirical findings of the extent to which the ambidexterity found in innovation and social networks will mediate the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and firm performance (FP). This study also compares the ambidextrous strategy between the balanced dimension (BD) and combined dimension (CD) and examines their contribution to the small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs’) performance.

The current study used an explanatory research design by surveying a total of 205 fashion firms’ owners/managers in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, using a semi-structured questionnaire. Path analysis with mediating tests and independent t-tests were used.

The results revealed that innovation and social network ambidexterity mediate the relationship between EO and the SMEs’ performance. One ambidextrous strategy, the BD strategy, is superior to the CD one. The study makes an interesting discovery: the CD strategy apparently dominates FP when EO does not exist.

The study suggests that no ambidextrous strategy (i.e. BD and CD) used by the SMEs can fit all situations. In detail, the study provides four different strategies for SMEs to build organizational ambidexterity, namely, innovate and sustain; elevate; expand; and collaborate and survive. It is also suggested that the SMEs consider two main principles when dealing with an ambidextrous strategy, “anything that is too much is not always good” and “one size does not fit all.” By doing so, the SMEs are expected to be able to use internal and external resources and choose the most appropriate ambidextrous strategy to respond to the relevant situation (e.g. the changes of consumer behavior due to the COVID-19 pandemic).

Using a dynamic capability approach by integrating two perspectives, i.e. the internal (resource-based theory) and external (resource-dependency theory) perspectives, makes the study relevant and valuable to better understand the role and type of ambidexterity among SMEs as a mediating factor between EO and FP. This paper breaks new ground by confirming a paradoxical phenomenon concerning organizational ambidextrous practices within SMEs. Additionally, four strategies for ambidextrous were developed to respond to the anomaly.

The investigation of organization's ambidextrous innovation is a challenge in the research studies of management sciences. As existent literature showed a positive relation between dynamic capability (DC) and innovation, few empirical studies are conducted to explain how DC impacts on the balanced and combined dimension of ambidexterity and still less on how social network moderates this relation. As a result, this paper aims to investigate and provide empirical evidence on DC’s influence on ambidexterity in the context of China.

By a relational model of DC, ambidextrous innovation and social network, this study has conducted multiple regression analysis on the data collected from 350 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in mainland China.

The results show that, DC has positive influence on both the combined and balanced dimension of ambidexterity; and both the relational network and structural network play an inverted U moderating role, where the moderation of relational network is stronger than that of structural network.

This study provides empirical support on DC's influence on ambidexterity together with the moderation of social network.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a holistic model regarding the antecedents and consequences of organizational ambidexterity in the context of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), particularly for developing countries such as Turkey. Moreover, this paper also aims to reveal the moderating role of networking between organizational ambidexterity and firm performance.

By studying 105 SMEs engaged in small business and technology development centers (SBTDCs), structural equation modeling through SmartPLS is executed.

The findings show that: discipline and support positively influence the formation and the maintenance of organizational ambidexterity; organizational ambidexterity significantly contributes to firm performance; and the greater the networking the greater the relationship between exploitation capability and firm performance.

To date, there has been no systematic attempt in the extant literature to develop a holistic manner of organizational ambidexterity, with its antecedents and consequences in the context of SMEs in general, in SMEs of a developing country, Turkey in particular. Moreover, the moderating role of networking between organizational ambidexterity and a firm’s performance has never been examined.

Social networking services (SNSs) have been praised for their social capital (SC) benefits. However, the time displacement hypothesis in Internet research may challenge such an optimistic view. In response to this challenge, this study aimed to develop a theoretical model that uncovers the transformation, rather than displacement among online and offline SC in terms of bonding and bridging types during SNSs use.

The concept of SC was divided into the following four types: offline bonding, online bonding, offline bridging and online bridging. A theoretical model grounded in individual ambidexterity theory was developed that uncovered the transformation among these types of SC, and it was tested a sample of WeChat users in China. Furthermore, the theoretical model included the concept of cognitive ambidexterity, which promotes transformation.

As an exploitation process, offline bonding SC mediated the relationship between SNSs use and online bonding SC. As an exploration process, online bridging SC mediated the association between SNSs use and offline bridging SC. In addition, cognitive ambidexterity moderated the exploration and exploitation processes positively.

This study demonstrated that SNSs users strategically and successfully manage SC benefits through exploitation and exploration processes, and ambidextrous individuals can do this more effectively. Accordingly, this study proposed the transformation hypothesis in the SNSs context.

In this chapter, the authors examine the main effect of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) – a firm’s strategic entrepreneurial posture – on balancing exploration and exploitation in the form of organizational ambidexterity. Resource-constrained firms face an imperative to conduct innovative activities, survive hostile environments, and compete with larger and more resource-rich firms. The authors contend that firms can address these potential impediments through achieving ambidexterity via dynamic capabilities, firm-specific resources, and institutional factors. Specifically, The authors review the EO and ambidexterity literatures and summarize extant arguments related to the relationship between EO, exploration, and exploitation. The authors also discuss the most prominent scales and measures of EO, exploration, and exploitation. Moreover, the authors discuss operationalizational challenges that should be considered when conducting EO–ambidexterity research and suggest future research directions by specifying an agenda outlining useful theoretical perspectives and various contingencies that may influence the EO–ambidexterity relationship.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new perspective on ambidextrous innovation orientation looking at how the current digital transformation is accepted in the fashion industry in Italy. Precisely, the objective of the paper is to test whether the use of social media platforms positively influences ambidextrous innovation orientation in fashion companies.

Empirical quantitative research was carried out on a sample of 853 small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in the fashion industry in Italy. Using a logistic regression methodology, four hypotheses were tested to verify the correlation of four dimensions of social media platforms with an ambidextrous innovation orientation among fashion firms.

The four hypotheses were validated: the structural dimension, the relational behaviour dimension, the cognitive dimension and knowledge transfer practices of social media platforms were proven to positively influence ambidextrous innovation orientation in fashion firms.

Though this is one of the few research studies that offers a quantitative analysis in this field, it could be further developed, for instance by extending the sample of firms to SMEs operating in other countries or by comparing multinationals with SMEs.

This paper provides an original contribution to studies on the use of social media to promote ambidexterity in firms, which has only been studied to a limited extent in the extant literature. From this perspective, the originality of the study is further strengthened by the unique context of analysis, namely, the fashion industry in Italy.

This paper aims to explore the relationship between owner-manager or leader’s ambidextrous leadership style and its effect on human resource management (HRM) practices, contextual ambidexterity and knowledge-intensive small- and medium-enterprises (SMEs) strategic agility.

This study presents an in-depth qualitative case study analysis of two knowledge-intensive SMEs from India’s information technology and health-care products industry serving a range of global clients. Using the theoretical lenses of empowerment-focused HRM practices, ambidextrous leaders, contextual ambidexterity and strategic agility, semi-structured interview data of leaders, managers and employees of the case organizations were analysed. Through a two-staged analytical process, we abductively developed a novel conceptual framework at the intersection of the above theoretical lenses.

The findings suggest that the knowledge-intensive SME’s strategic agility, ambidexterity and empowerment-focussed HRM approach was influenced by the owner-manager or leader’s ambidextrous leadership style and their philosophy towards managing people and had a positive impact in creating a culture of trust, participation, risk-taking and openness, and led to delivering innovative products and services as well as several positive employee-level outcomes.

Recent literature reviews on HRM In SMEs highlight several gaps, including the impact of owner-manager or leader’s philosophy of managing people in shaping HRM practices and employee outcomes. This paper thus adds to the existing literature on HRM and knowledge-intensive SMEs.