| Why some firms are successful in strategic renewal by creating and sustaining competitive advantage is a fundamental question in the management and strategy disciplines. While selection pressures of environments govern firm activities and render firms structurally inert, turbulence of environments impels firms to actively adapt and self-renew. Recent insights suggest that ambidextrous organizations perform well in dynamic environments as they are able to adapt to changing environmental requirements and self-renew by balancing innovation and efficiency (Volberda & Lewin, 2003; Gibson & Birkinshaw, 2004). Even though ambidexterity is important for sustained self-renewal, understanding of how firms become ambidextrous is limited. This research project focuses on how strategies aimed at creating and managing external, internal and social networks contribute to organizational ambidexterity. Every firm maintains a variety of complementing networks, which enable the combination of knowledge in different ways, so that firms pursue both efficiency and innovativeness. Firms manage external networks with outside partners (Vlaar et al., 2006, 2007), internal networks between organizational units, and social networks between people (Van Wijk, 2003). Building on a theoretical framework derived from recent research, hypotheses will be developed and tested using survey research as to how network types influence ambidexterity. By taking an integrative network perspective, the project aims at a more encompassing explanation of the success of ambidextrous organizations. |
