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Environmental uncertainty (EU) and firm size (FS) generate inertial forces that can push small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to emphasize either exploration or exploitation. In this article, the authors explore how structural (e.g. formal processes, control and discipline) and social (e.g. employee support and decision-making involvement) managerial instruments counteract such inertial forces and enable SME ambidexterity. Building on the organization-context literature, the authors propose a model in which EU and firms' size moderate the relationship between structural and social managerial instruments on SME ambidexterity.

The authors examined a moderation model using surveys of chief executive officers (CEOs) and performance archival data from 237 Chilean SMEs.

The authors find that the positive effect of structure on SME ambidexterity decreases with FS. In contrast, social instruments have a positive effect on ambidexterity for larger firms, especially for those operating in uncertain environments. In cases in which EU and firms' size reinforce the exploration or exploitation tendencies of SMEs, structural and social instruments play a complementary role in achieving ambidexterity.

The authors contribute by proposing a contingent mix of structural and social instruments to enable SME ambidexterity. These results inform policymakers and SME managers by suggesting strategies to promote ambidexterity based on firms' size and EU.

The purpose of the study was to analyse the impact of innovation ambidexterity represented by explorative and exploitative innovation capabilities and their combined effects on product innovation performance and to prove the mediating effect of decentralization.

The study uses partial least squares for structural equation models and SmartPLS version 3.3.1 on a sample of 174 Romanian medium- and large-sized firms from the IT industry to test six research hypotheses. To measure innovation ambidexterity, the orthogonal approach was used, conceptualizing innovation ambidexterity as a multidimensional, second-order construct composed of explorative and exploitative innovation capabilities. Innovation ambidexterity was conceptualized as a multiplicative term of both explorative and exploitative innovation capabilities.

The empirical results prove that innovation ambidexterity is positively correlated with product innovation performance, while decentralization is mediating the impact of innovation ambidexterity on product innovation performance in the IT industry.

The data was based on self-reported assessments of senior executives. While innovation ambidexterity may influence product innovation performance in the long term, such long-term effects are not assessed. Other studies found a moderating effect between centralization or decentralization and ambidexterity, while we found that it has a mediating effect.

In the context of innovation capability, the combination of explorative or exploitative capabilities may lead to a better synergy. Innovation ambidexterity influences product innovation performance through a synergistic effect, making the simultaneous combination of capabilities useful for firms willing to make efficient use of existing resources and make their capabilities mutually supportive. Moreover, for senior executives, the effects of decentralization as a mediator provide further incentive to include it in their development of firms' innovation capabilities.

This study extends findings of other studies by contributing to a deeper examination of the effects of decentralization, on innovation outcomes by focusing on a specific type of innovation, product innovation. Moreover, since innovation capability is often studied in small firms or in the manufacturing industry, this study contributes to the research on innovation capability and the consequences on innovation capability in the services sector and medium- and large-sized companies. By proving that decentralization mediates the effects of innovation ambidexterity on product innovation performance, it enables reconsideration of the organizational structure role in fostering innovation.

This paper aims to examine how Chinese multinational enterprises’ (CMNEs) autonomy-style post-merger integration (PMI) modes of managing developed-market targets evolve into actual-form integration through the lens of ambidexterity.

This study adopts multi-case comparisons with content analysis. A data set was collected from 37 conversations by in-depth interviewing 29 respondents regarding four cases of Chinese acquisitions in the German market.

This study develops a three-stage framework that theorised CMNEs’ autonomy PMIs’ evolution to actual-form integration over time and the effect on acquisition value based on structural, temporal and contextual ambidexterity manifestations. The findings divide the evolutionary trajectory into two sub-trajectories, from great autonomy to autonomy-integration balanced or full integration, to illuminate the effect of different degrees of actual-form integration on value creation or value destruction.

The existing literature on CMNEs’ PMI discovered that CMNEs frequently grant ample autonomy when managing targets acquired from developed markets. However, long-term acquisition benefit is dependent on combining autonomy and actual-form integration; insights into how this can be accomplished are limited. The research is unique in that it reveals the evolutions of CMNEs’ PMIs on developed-market targets, from autonomy to actual-form integration through the lens of ambidexterity.

Incumbent retail organisations need to develop new capabilities to adapt with the increasingly competitive retail landscape. Despite the growing relevance of innovation in retail practice, the strategic management of innovation in retailing is still vastly under-researched. This explorative study thus aims to investigate how incumbent retail firms can organise for innovation from an organisational ambidexterity perspective.

A single-case study of an established Swedish retail firm was conducted from December 2016 to July 2018 and followed up in June 2021. The authors followed the process of implementation of organisational changes aimed to increase innovation in the company, particularly the introduction of a digital marketing initiative and a corporate innovation hub. Data collection was based on nine semi-structured interviews and participant observations and unstructured interviews from 13 meetings and workshops. An abductive approach to data analysis was followed, iteratively comparing theoretical concepts and empirical data using open, axial and selective coding to distil findings into aggregated themes.

Given the inherently limited formalisation of innovation processes in most retail organisations, structural ambidexterity appears to be necessary when the aim is radical, strategic retail innovation. Structural mechanisms are able to safeguard the space and resources to focus on long-term research and projects with higher risk and uncertainty; however, integration of innovation activities to the mainstream organisation is critical. Pursuing contextual ambidexterity, wherein instead of structural solutions, employees are empowered to divide employees' time between innovation-related and efficiency-related tasks, is more likely related to retail innovations that are incremental and operational.

The paper contributes to the emerging topic of strategic management of innovation in retailing, by explicating how incumbent retailers can organise for innovation depending on the type of innovation that is aimed for, using organisational ambidexterity as a novel perspective.

This study aims to explore the innovation deployment of construction contracting firms through exploratory–exploitative learning and organisational ambidexterity.

Firstly, a literature-based conceptual framework was developed to explain innovation implementation through exploratory–exploitative learning and organisational ambidexterity. A prominent Hong Kong construction contracting firm was then selected as the case study to explore its innovation deployment at different organisational levels (i.e. firm and project levels). Qualitative data were attained by conducting 12 semi-structured interviews with industry experts and document analysis. The thematic analysis using NVivo 12 software was adopted to analyse data.

Findings reveal that the case study firm successfully fosters innovation when ambidexterity is achieved through the balance between exploratory (i.e. radical innovation) and exploitative learnings (i.e. incremental innovation).

Establishing uniform ambidexterity (i.e. 50:50) at the firm or project level is not mandatory to deploy innovation successfully. The ratio can vary based on the characteristics and requirements of construction firms.

This paper shall motivate construction practitioners to adopt radical–incremental innovation ambidexterity in firms and ultimately enhance the productivity and efficiency of the construction industry.

Previous construction innovation research has frequently explored firm or project-level innovation separately. This study identified a multi-level focus on innovation. Through the lens of exploratory–exploitative theory, different forms of innovation ambidexterity for different levels are suggested rather than one specific ambidexterity.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how organizations manage and integrate exploration and exploitation across the innovation project portfolio. Such ambidextrous capabilities are required for organizations to innovate and succeed in today's rapidly changing competitive environment. Understanding how exploration and exploitation projects are integrated can illustrate ways to enhance ambidexterity and boost learning for the benefit of both approaches.

A multiple-case study approach was used to explore innovation portfolio management in six large organizations that emphasize innovation in their strategies.

The findings draw upon concepts of paradox and contingency to reveal that the inherent tension between formality and flexibility in managing innovation project portfolios is aligned with the need for organizational ambidexterity that maintains effective exploitative innovation while supporting explorative innovation capabilities. Four integration mechanisms are identified that enhance ambidexterity across the innovation portfolio by embedding processes for transition from exploration to exploitation and cross-fertilizing knowledge to build innovation capability across both exploration and exploitation.

Managers may find inspiration on ways to enhance learning by bridging exploration and exploitation projects from the four types of integration mechanisms. Recognizing the paradoxical nature of the tension between formality and flexibility in project and portfolio management may also help guide organizations to effectively develop ambidextrous approaches to enhance overall innovation outcomes.

In contrast to perspectives which suggest that paradox and contingency approaches represent disparate perspectives, the authors demonstrate how they can complement each other and work together through innovation portfolio management to support ambidexterity at the portfolio and project levels.

According to governance theory, choosing an effective supply chain (SC) governance mechanism can balance the interests and conflicts between enterprises and help them achieve their performance goals. However, incentive and relational governance have not been fully studied in improving enterprise cooperative performance (ECP). This study aims to examine the relationship between incentive and relational governance in general, the direct effects of combined governance strategy (CGS; the combination dimension of the above two governance mechanisms) on ECP and the mediating effects of SC ambidexterity on CGS and ECP in particular.

To test the hypotheses, this study implements hierarchical linear regression and bootstrap with a survey data set of Chinese manufacturing enterprises.

Results demonstrate that incentive and relational governance can generate complementary effects through enabling and compensating mechanisms, and their combination, that is, CGS, can promote ECP more than a single governance approach; CGS is conducive to solving the SC ambidexterity dilemma and can simultaneously enhance SC alignment and adaptability, thus further improving ECP; and SC ambidexterity plays an intermediary role between CGS and ECP.

The present study examines the complex interaction between incentive governance, relational governance, SC ambidexterity, and ECP. Implications for theory and practice are that formulating appropriate CGS can develop SC ambidexterity and improve ECP.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect the servant leadership on innovative work behaviour (IWB) of teachers. Besides this, the mediating effect of ambidexterity on enhancing IWB and moderating role of gender has also been investigated.

Variance-based SEM has been used for testing the proposed structural model with a sample of 350 college teachers.

Findings of the study revealed that servant leadership positively influences IWB. Additionally, IWB can be augmented with the presence of individual ambidexterity.

As per our knowledge, the present study is the first of its kind that makes an additional contribution to the IWB literature by investigating a partial mediating role of individual ambidexterity on the relationship between servant leadership and IWB.

The purpose of this paper is to differentiate the ambidextrous leadership concept into direct and indirect types to provide an alternative when the requirements of direct ambidextrous leadership cannot be met.

Desk research is used in this paper to relate the ambidextrous leadership concept to the roles of leader and manager to more comprehensively determine the requirements for being a direct/indirect ambidextrously leading executive than is possible by referring only to opening and closing leadership or exploration and exploitation.

Special requirements in the context of ambidextrous leadership can be transferred from the top executive/chief executive officer to third parties, for example, some control tasks in the area of exploitation can be distributed among the top management team, enabling the top executive to focus on tasks such as developing an organisation-wide vision and its strategic implementation. Indirect ambidextrous leadership exists if the top executive distributes exploitation tasks to third parties. Direct ambidextrous leadership exists if the top executive assumes leadership in both the exploration and exploitation areas. This means that the demands on the top executive are different in direct ambidextrous leadership and in indirect ambidextrous leadership.

The literature has not yet focused on the differentiation between direct and indirect ambidextrous leadership. This paper contributes towards closing this gap. The potential for indirect ambidextrous leadership can be essential for a company’s success because in addition to direct ambidextrous leadership, it represents the possibility of creating a sustainable organisation in a changing market.

This study, a conceptual paper, aims an answer the question, how significant cluster ambidexterity is for the resilience of individual clusters.

The authors draw up an abductive synopsis of empirical information and relevant theoretical sources. A case study is used to illustrate some of the findings.

The results of the analysis show that the ambidexterity of a cluster can contribute to its resilience when adverse external developments arise. Ambidexterity proves to be simultaneously a common strategy of key cluster actors and a mechanism for coping with critical situations and developments that can be activated by the cluster actors and may – eventually – lead to cluster resilience. While ambidexterity does not guarantee cluster survival, it can contribute significantly to their economic resilience under adverse conditions.

The concept is developed on a limited empirical basis and would need to be tested and deepened by comparing a wide range of case studies from different clusters.

A better understanding of the importance of ambidexterity for the development of industrial clusters contributes to a better fine-tuning of cluster support policies.

Ambidexterity as a concept originating from business administration has so far only been rudimentarily tapped for empirical and theoretical cluster research. The paper identifies and develops a path how this could be accomplished to a greater extent in the future.