Relative Ambidexterity: A Measure and a Versatile Framework

Abstract

Executives struggle to arrive at appropriate levels of ambidexterity to achieve desired performance. Scholars have proposed varied and sometimes confounding solutions to this challenge. We offer a novel approach by arguing that a firm’s ambidexterity is a strategic choice that must be contextualized in the competitive dynamics of the firm’s referent group. We digress from conventional organization-centric contextualizations and introduce an appropriately specified construct—relative ambidexterity—to address this need. We characterize the viable relative ambidexterity space (VRAS) where ambidexterity choices are made, and we offer a versatile framework to help researchers and practitioners explore organizational ambidexterity. We close by demonstrating how the framework offers opportunities for new streams of scholarly research on ambidexterity.

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