In Pursuit of Ambidexterity The ambidextrous nature of a small enterprise and its implications on NPD - A Case Study
Abstract
Innovation is a crucial determinant of success in today’s highly competitive and fast-paced
climate. This forces organizations to focus on developing future business solutions while still
exploiting their existing resources to stay profitable. One way of doing this is through
organizational ambidexterity, which is shortly described as the ability of an organization to
balance exploration and exploitation for sustained performance. The theory of ambidexterity
mostly concerns large companies with enough resources to separate the organizations into
different parts, focusing on existing and future businesses respectively. Moreover, the
challenge for small companies, without these resources, is thus how to structure their
operations to find other ways to balance exploration and exploitation to reach a certain degree
of ambidexterity. A gap in the literature that was discovered was the practical implication of
organizational ambidexterity in small organizations and how it influences their new product
development (NPD), which is the purpose of this study. Furthermore, the connection to the
corporate culture of firms that facilitate ambidextrous working was not adequately researched
and was thus included in the aim of the research.
To gather an in-depth understanding of the subject, a single case study with a qualitative
research strategy was implemented, following an abductive research design. In addition,
semi-structured interviews were conducted with managers and engineers to enable different
perspectives on the subject. The findings from the interviews were then analyzed in relation to
the gathered literature using thematic analysis.
The empirical findings indicated that the organization, consistent with existing literature,
faces challenges in achieving structural ambidexterity. Consequently, the case organization
adopted a temporal approach to ambidexterity, prioritizing the mobilization of its entire staff
for the most critical project at hand. Respondents revealed that this approach was driven by
the urgent need for cash, but it ultimately yielded limited financial gains due to relying on
existing intellectual property (IP) to meet short deadlines.
Degree
Master 2-years
Collections
View/ Open
Date
2023-07-20Author
Landén, Emil
Tullock, Emil
Keywords
ambidexterity
ambidextrous
organization
ambidexterity in smaller organizations
corporate culture
new product development
Series/Report no.
Master Degree Project 2023:54
Language
eng