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Industrial and Corporate Change, 2017
Managerial attention to exploitation and exploration has a strong influence on organizational performance. However, there is hardly any knowledge about whether senior managers need to adjust their distribution of attention to exploitation and exploration in response to major changes in demand patterns in their industry. Drawing on the analysis of a panel data set of 86 firms in the information technology industry exposed to an economic recession and recovery, we find that successfully navigating an economic downturn demands more managerial attention to exploration, while leveraging the subsequent upswing requires more attention to exploitation. As such, this study contributes to the literature by providing a dynamic perspective on ambidexterity: that is, senior managers need to redistribute their attention to exploration and exploitation to effectively meet the changing environmental demands over time.
Organizational Ambidexterity : Balancing Exploitation and Exploration in Organizations
2013
Purpose: This paper aims to investigate necessity of ambidexterity for organizations. The main interest of this thesis is to investigate why organizations should be ambidextrous and how organizations can reach ambidexterity under the pressure of limited resources and competitive market condition. Findings: This thesis explored relations and tensions between exploitation and exploration in organizational and individual aspects. Findings in the research show that communication skill of the subunits in the case company need to be strengthened. Subunits need to be independent from each other. However, they should be aware of other subunits’ actions. In this sense, there is need for strong information flow between all units in the case company. Participation of employees and teamwork should be promoted by leaders. This thesis suggests that establishing special subunits for explorative activities would not only leverage explorative processes in the organizations but it would also leverage...
Getting Trapped in the Suppression of Exploration: A Simulation Model
Journal of Management Studies, 2011
The benefits of strategically balancing exploitation and exploration are well documented in the literature. Nonetheless, many firms tend to overemphasize exploitation efforts, a situation commonly referred to as the 'success trap'. Previous studies have attributed this behaviour to managerial incompetence or myopia. However, some management teams appear to adequately recognize the exploration need, while not being able to bring about the required strategic change. We draw on system dynamics modelling to investigate this phenomenon. A simulation model is developed and then the behaviour of a selected firm is replicated to uncover the underlying processes. As such, we develop a process theory of the success trap at the managerial level, coined the 'suppression process'. This process theory describes and explains how the interplay between top managers, board members, and exploitation-exploration activities can trap the firm in the suppression of exploration.
Exploration vs. Exploitation: An Empirical Test of the Ambidexterity Hypothesis
While exploration and exploitation represent two fundamentally different approaches to organizational learning, recent literature has increasingly indicated the need for firms to achieve a balance between the two. This balanced view is embedded in the concept of ambidextrous organizations. However, there is little direct evidence of the positive effect of ambidexterity on firm performance. This paper seeks to test the ambidexterity hypothesis by examining how exploration and exploitation can jointly influence firm performance in the context of firms’ approach to technological innovation. Based on a sample of 206 manufacturing firms, we find evidence consistent with the ambidexterity hypothesis by showing that (1) the interaction between explorative and exploitative innovation strategies is positively related to sales growth rate, and (2) the relative imbalance between explorative and exploitative innovation strategies is negatively related to sales growth rate. Key words: technological innovation; innovation strategy; ambidextrous organization
Organizational Ambidexterity: Balancing Exploitation and Exploration for Sustained Performance
Organization Science, 2009
O rganizational ambidexterity has emerged as a new research paradigm in organization theory, yet several issues fundamental to this debate remain controversial. We explore four central tensions here: Should organizations achieve ambidexterity through differentiation or through integration? Does ambidexterity occur at the individual or organizational level? Must organizations take a static or dynamic perspective on ambidexterity? Finally, can ambidexterity arise internally, or do firms have to externalize some processes? We provide an overview of the seven articles included in this special issue and suggest several avenues for future research.
ResearchGate logo Home More Matthew, is this publication from your current lab? Link this publication to your lab to increase the visibility of your work. Yes No Article Full-text available Learning organizational ambidexterity: A joint-variance synthesis of exploration–exploitation modes on performance June 2018The Learning Organization 6(5) Project: Health-Services Research, Patient-Reported Outcomes, Quality-of-Life Assessment Matthew KerryMatthew KerryJustin A. DeSimone Reads 0 0 new Recommendations 0 0 new Citations 0 0 new Overview Comments Citations References (51) Related research (10+) Abstract Edit Organizational ambidexterity (OA) figures prominently in a variety of organization science phenomena. Introduced as a two-stage model for innovation, theory specifies reciprocal reinforcement between the OA processes of exploration and exploitation. In this study, we argue that previous analyses of OA necessarily neglect this reciprocality in favor of conceptualizations that conform to common statistical techniques. Because reciprocality is theorized, yet absent in current models, existing results represent confounded or biased evidence of the OA’s effect on firm performance. Subsequently, we propose joint-variance (JV) as a soluble estimator of exploration-exploitation reciprocality. An updated systematic literature synthesis yielded K=53 studies (56 independent samples, N = 11,743) for further testing. After observing a significantly stronger relationship between exploration and exploitation than either’s standalone relationship with performance, three primary findings are reported in support of JV’s index of reciprocality. First, JV reduced negative confounding from past operational inconsistencies of exploration-exploitation, explaining 45% of between-study variance. Second, JV quantified the positive confounding in current meta-evidence from doublecounting performance in separate estimates of exploration (53%) and exploitation (55%). Third, JV’s substantive application to hypothesis testing supported theoretical predictions. We discuss practical consideration for eR-eT reciprocality, as well as theoretical contributions for cohering the OA empirical literature. Full-texts (1) Content uploaded by Matthew Kerry Author content (AoM)_Kerry & DeSimone (2018) JV of Explor-Exploit for OrgAmbidex on Performance.pdf 1.36 MB See full-text © 2008-2018 ResearchGate GmbH. All rights reserved.News · About us · Careers · Help Center · Developers · Privacy · Terms · Copyright · Imprint | Advertising · RecruitingApp Store
Dynamic Balancing of Exploration and Exploitation: The Contingent Benefits of Ambidexterity
Organization Science, 2018
We study the evolution of firms’ exploration–exploitation allocations and their long-term performance outcomes. Extending current ambidexterity theory, we suggest that not only firms pursuing one-sided exploration or exploitation orientations show self-reinforcing tendencies but also ambidextrous firms adopting balanced exploration–exploitation orientations. Integrating formal modeling arguments, we further propose that reinforcing ambidexterity can be good or bad for firms’ long-term performance, depending on the environment they face: In contexts characterized by incremental change, firms benefit more from the learning effects of maintaining ambidexterity, which lead to superior performance. Firms in discontinuous change contexts, however, suffer more from the misalignment that reinforcement creates, which affects their performance negatively. A longitudinal data set of global insurance firms (1999–2014) supports our arguments. Building on these findings, we reconceptualize ambide...
Managing Organizational Ambidexterity
2023
We define organizational ambidexterity as a high order dynamic capability governing the continuous enhancement of the interaction between exploration and exploitation. Managing this interaction implies resolving the firm’s permanent struggle to overcome perceived barriers in realising the right resource configuration between exploration and exploitation. Since organizations learn to manage ambidexterity through iteration and experience, fostering path dependencies, we expect that the type of capabilities deployed to overcome these barriers will be contingent on the strategic orientation of the firm. Thus ambidexterity can be seen as a theory of adaptability and innovativeness.
Exploration and exploitation: Do actual behaviors match individuals' perceptions?
2012
Research on contextual ambidexterity assumes that an organizationÕs capacity to pursue simultaneously exploration and exploitation leverages on organizational solutions encouraging a balance between these two learning orientations. However, limited attention has as yet been devoted to the investigation of contextual ambidexterity at the individual level of analysis. Starting from this gap, this paper addresses the following research questions: How do
The Interplay Between Exploration and Exploitation
Academy of Management Journal, 2006
Exploration and exploitation have emerged as the twin concepts underpinning organizational adaptation research, yet some central issues related to them remain ambiguous. We address four related questions here: What do exploration and exploitation mean? Are they two ends of a continuum or orthogonal to each other? How should organizations achieve balance between exploration and exploitation-via ambidexterity or punctuated equilibrium? Finally, must all organizations strive for a balance, or is specialization in exploitation or exploration sometimes sufficient for long-run success? We summarize the contributions of the work in this special research forum and highlight important directions for future research.