Open Access

Peter Schrader

• In changing markets, companies that are unable to adapt fail. One way to adapt successfully is implementing ambidexterity, the simultaneous pursuit of exploration and exploitation (O’REILLY & TUSHMAN 2008, p. 201). Many scholars described the implementation of ambidexterity with different approaches. This presents organizations with an additional challenge of identifying an appropriate approach before implementing it. This thesis provides a framework for organizations to identify suitable modes of ambidexterity. To achieve this goal, this thesis is structured in three parts. The first part consists of a systematic literature review, which provides an overview of studies focused on the implementation of ambidexterity. In the second part different modes of implementing ambidexterity are described and discussed in detail. Finally, in the third part a model to identify suitable modes is developed and demonstrated. The aim of this work was to enable companies in the manufacturing sector to successfully implement organizational ambidexterity and provide recommendations for its implementation. Three research questions were formulated: What options do established companies in the manufacturing sector have for implementing organizational ambidexterity? Which relevant organizational design fields can be identified for adopting ambidexterity? What recommendations can be formulated to promote successful implementation of ambidexterity in companies? The first research question was answered using the systematic quantitative literature review. Using the most cited articles from the field, the four basic modes structural separation, temporal separation, contextual ambidexterity, and domain separation were identified. Also, variations and combinations of these modes were found. In addition to the different approaches, information about the different studies was collected and quantized. It was found that while structural separation, domain separation and contextual ambidexterity appear in different types of scientific articles, temporal separation mainly appears in review articles. Furthermore, it was possible to make statements about the geographical background of the articles. Studies on this topic were particularly often affiliated to the USA, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. Data used in these studies was collected in North America, Europe, and Asia. The relevant organizational design fields for the implementation of ambidexterity strongly depend on the chosen mode. To answer the second research question, the second part of this thesis describes in depth the functionality of the four different modes and illustrates them with examples. The challenges in the implementation of the modes were discussed and the role of the management in the process was explained. In structural separation, temporal separation and domain separation, the senior management plays an active role coordinating and managing the tensions between the exploitative and exploratory tasks. In contextual ambidexterity, on the other hand, senior management is responsible for creating an environment in which the individual can switch independently between exploration and exploitation. Finally, to answer the third research question a model for identifying suitable modes for companies was developed based on the various recommendations from the literature included in the systematic quantitative literature review. This model takes external as well as internal influences into account. In the first step, the need for exploration is determined based on environmental influences. An assessment of environmental dynamism and competitiveness is used to derive the need for exploration of the company. Subsequently, the possibilities for implementing ambidexterity are determined based on internal factors. Organizational size and age are explicitly taken into account in this step. Additional factors such as the organizational structure and available resources are considered indirectly via assumptions connected with the organizational size. In the third step of the model, the identified requirements are combined with potential modes and their characteristics, creating individualized recommendations for suitable modes to implement ambidexterity. Using a fictional company, the procedure was tested and demonstrated. This thesis complements similar works that have also examined and described the different types of ambidexterity. Furthermore, this thesis extends the collection of different modes with a comprehensive set of recommendations which company should implement which mode and how. One weakness is that due to the focus on the most cited articles in the field, the focus shifted towards older publications, although the relevance of the included articles was ensured. Due to the many recent articles in the field of organizational ambidexterity, it can be expected, that relevant articles were excluded from the review based on their citation number. Accordingly, expanding the considered articles with less cited articles could add further relevant and more recent articles to the framework. Also, the small amount of selection criteria in the process of selecting suitable ambidexterity modes for organizations is a limitation. Although a high number of selection criteria increases the complexity of the framework, they allow users to map their organization more accurately and thus derive even more specific recommendations. Enabling companies to successfully implement ambidexterity provides them with a greater opportunity to continue their participation in the infinite game. However, the exact understanding and theory in the literature still needs to be further developed.