The publication-based dissertation investigates how to leverage corporate venturing units for the continuous stra- tegic renewal of established companies. It includes four self-contained research papers, from which three are de- veloped for publication in peer-reviewed academic journals, and one for publication as an academic teaching case study. The first paper uses the methodology of a systematic literature review to integrate different research streams of organizational ambidexterity, dynamic capabilities, and corporate venturing. As a result, it provides an inte- grated framework and identifies interlinked-ambidextrous corporate venturing units as a promising research av- enue for strategic corporate venturing. The second paper applies a multiple-case study approach to differentiate contemporary corporate venturing units from a strategic renewal perspective. As a result, it can provide a novel typology and suggest a first organizational framework for strategic corporate venturing. The third paper investi- gates the identified interlinked-ambidextrous corporate venturing units deeper through additional qualitative data collection and analysis. This results in a proposed organizational model of strategic corporate venturing with spe- cific organizational antecedents alongside process activities, dynamic capabilities and organizational interlinks as possible enablers, and ambidextrous orientation as a possible mediator to develop organizationally consequential new business. The fourth paper helps to apply these findings by describing the strategic renewal challenge of the digital scale-up Freeletics and leading through the organizational set-up of a suitable strategic corporate venturing project in the teaching note. To integrate all papers within one dissertation, they are framed with an introductory and concluding section. The introduction describes the overall need and motivation for the research and intro- duces the key theoretical concepts as well as the four research papers and their publication status. The concluding section provides theoretical and practical implications, as well as limitations and future research opportunities across all included papers. Altogether, the dissertation enhances existing corporate venturing theory to better lev- erage the concept for strategic renewal and provides new insights into the establishing and application of dynamic capabilities and organizational ambidexterity in dedicated corporate venturing units.

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組織在持續發展的進程中會逐漸的由有機型轉而為機械型組織的狀態，然而隨著外在環境趨向超競爭的型態，使其核心技術將有過時之虞，所以組織必須成立新部門以隨時觀察並利用外在之機會，因此組織內新舊部門並列的現象成為企業運作實務的常態。不過新舊部門之間並非必然只能夠各自獨立運作，其間能夠透過持續倡導「可容納新舊部門」的願景下，讓新舊部門透過組織高層主持的跨部委員會之居中協調達到提升彼此績效之正向螺旋效果，如此之組織形式在文獻上稱為「雙面式組織」。 本研究之進行首先由內而外探討雙面式組織定義與內在核心構成要素：其核心概念分為由高層主導之結構性雙面式思維，其用意在於由高層設立跨部會機制以影響成員行為，而系絡性雙面式思維在於由基層員工主動引導跨部會行動，進而影響高層做出相對應之措施，而以上概念對應外在的組織構成形式則可分為結構性、系絡性與混合結構與系絡性之雙面式組織三種；而其間之知識管理模式主要概念在於「先讓成員從共同擬定價值觀，之後再使成員自發性的針對議題進分享彼此知識並進一步及於知識的整合與創造」。 接續以NTT DoCoMo研發i-mode系統為例，說明雙面式組織在企業實務運作之「從封閉平台之電信加值思維到開放平台之網路創值思維」的策略重思考、「透過具跨部門性質之策略性社群與凝聚各策略性社群共識之領導性策略事業群」的組織轉型與「主持策略性社群內 / 間互動與雙面式組織內部之知識發掘、擴散與累積」之變革管理的議題，並透過對個案評論與不同個案之輔助以期使雙面式組織之具體運作使說明更為全面。 在個案描述與評論之後，本研究針對雙面式組織的運行提出以下的三個推論：第一，組織高層應在可容納新舊部門思維之共同目標前提下，確立新舊部門之間的分工與合作機制，以免新舊部門因為彼此爭利而落得兩敗俱傷的局面；第二，在雙面式組織的有效運作中，各社群領導人富有包容力的領導方式與具備前瞻性的領導眼光是其成功的關鍵；第三，組織結構式雙面性與系絡式雙面性思維之運作過程是一體兩面且環環相扣，而且當雙面式組織的運作模式被長期使用時，組織內部的運作會同時包含以上所提及之兩種思維。 / As time goes by, organizational structure will be transformed from organic to mechanic form. However, organization must start a new division because the condition of hyper-competition would make core technology become obsolete. Therefore it is so common that new and old divisions co-exist in an organization, but they are not necessarily operated independently. Between them can both attain higher positive-spiral performance through the cross-division committee under “compatible of new and old divisions” vision and such the organizational structure is called “Ambidextrous Organization” in literatures. In this research, ambidextrous organization will be discussed from inner sides to outer ones: starting from the definition and core composing thoughts: structural ambidexterity, which means training employees’ behaviors to be ambidextrous through structural changes, and contextual ambidexterity, which means upper managers’ ambidextrous actions are stimulated from middle or lower employees. Following the core composing parts matches not only the external structural forms: structural ambidextrous organization, contextual ambidextrous organization, and organization which mix the thoughts of structural and contextual ambidexterity but also the process from value resonance of co-workers to knowledge sharing and creation. Following the case analyzing method will be used to explain the operation of ambidextrous organization putting into practice: Take NTT DoCoMo for instance, this research will show the strategic rethinking of” from close platform of telecom value-added concept to open platform of internet value-creation concept”, the corporate transformation of” cross-divisional strategic community and leadership-based strategic community which converge a common consensus of all strategic communities” and the change management of” directing the interaction among strategic communities and knowledge discovering, distributing, and accumulating”. Case comment and other supportive cases will be mentioned to fully analyze the concrete operation of ambidextrous organization. After the case description and comment, this research will further propose three propositions: First, high level managers should take visions comparable of new and old divisions or they would be in serious wrangling over the resources. Second, considerate and visionary leading competence is the key to successfully managing the operation of ambidextrous organization. Third, structural and contextual ambidexterity thoughts are interactive and mutual-inclusive, especially when using the system of ambidextrous organization for a long time.

Changes take place every day in business and society. Some are relatively slow like for example changes related to globalization, demographics, and the environment. Other changes related to technology can be faster and more disruptive. Some events, like the Covid-19 pandemic, are especially disruptive and may trigger rapid changes with extensive impact. Regardless of the change it is valuable for organizations to be able to adapt. The public sector is now challenged by increasing cost pressures, an ageing population, new demands from various groups as well as new workforce requirements and this creates a need for transformation. Previous research with regards to transformation capability focused on concepts like dynamic capabilities, organizational ambidexterity, organizational change capacity, organizational change competence, or organizational agility but there seem to be a lack of studies of the concept specifically related to the public sector. In addition, a recent study by the Swedish Agency for Work Environment Expertise concluded that the research area is fragmented and that it lacks studies on how employees can contribute to organizational change competence. The purpose of this thesis was thus to investigate how transformation capability of public sector organizations can be improved from an employee- or actor perspective. To explore the research question a qualitative and explorative method was used. Theoretical literature related to transformation as well as transformation capability, was used to build knowledge around the study topic. Two different surveys with open-ended questions were used to collect data from the Swedish public sector organization selected for the study. The first survey was used as a probe to build some initial understanding of transformation practice in the organization. The second one focused specifically on how different actors could contribute to improve transformation capability. The results gave a good general overview of how the transformation capability can be improved from different actor perspectives related to the organization. By using the results together with the existing theoretical frameworks of transformation capability a new more people-centric model of transformation capability was proposed and used to explore ways of improvement. The conclusion was that transformation capability of public sector organizations can be improved by leveraging the performance measures, the actors, the process, the culture/mindset, and the technology that are involved in transformation work. A proactive, collaborative and cross-organizational approach to improvement of transformation capability over time should decrease the risk for negative effects from future disruptions and create a more viable and sustainable organization.

Företag möter idag ökad konkurrens från mer än bara lokala företag, varpå även vikten av att stå ut från sina konkurrenter och upprätthålla ett högt innovationstempo har ökat. Således faller det på företag att utforma sin organisation för att möjliggöra tillvaratagandet av sina medarbetares innovationsförslag och på så sätt undvika att stagnera. Ett sätt att göra detta på är att forma en intraprenörskapskultur inom företaget, något som dock inte är utan utmaningar. Syftet med denna studie är att med grund i medarbetarutsagor genomföra en organisationskulturell analys av hur ett väletablerat svenskt företag fångar upp medarbetares innovativa idéer, samt möjligheter och svårigheter med intraprenörskap. Studien genomfördes som en kvalitativ, interpretivistisk, fallstudie med en induktiv ansats, vars empiriska data inhämtats genom semistrukturerade intervjuer och interna dokument. Fynden tolkades abduktivt med hjälp av Scheins flernivåmodell av organisationskultur. Den delar in kultur i tre nivåer vilka exemplifieras enligt följande: artefakter – innovationsförslagsmallar och innovationsprocesser, övertygelser och värderingar – officiellt uttalade målbilder och publicerade värderingar, samt grundläggande antaganden – att standardisering hämmar specialisering, och vilken roll IT kan och bör spela inom organisationen. Studien visar att decentraliserade och självstyrande verksamhetsområden kan hantera och värdera innovation och intraprenörskap på väldigt olika sätt. En slutsats är att decentraliserade och självbestämda målsättningar kan leda till att en obalans uppstår, där ett verksamhetsområde står för större delen av organisationens totala innovationsarbete. Till följd av organisationens silostruktur uppstår viss problematik gällande verksamhetsområdenas förmåga att dela lärdomar relaterade till innovationsprocesser. Detta innebär att processen inom vilken medarbetare lämnar innovationsförslag, och således även dess förutsättningar att göra så, varierar beroende på var inom organisationen individen arbetar. Organisationens IT-avdelning skulle i större utsträckning kunna bistå i innovations- och digitaliseringsarbete, varpå relationen mellan IT och organisationskultur även belysts. Vidare fann studien en övervägande enhetlighet mellan organisationens tre kulturella nivåer, där artefakter till stor del gick i linje med dess hyllade värderingar av försiktighet och långsiktighet, samt grundantaganden kring optimal riskhantering. / Companies today face increased competition from more than just local companies, whereupon the importance of standing out from their competitors and maintaining a high pace of innovation has also increased. Thus, it is up to companies to design their organization to enable the utilization of their employees' innovation proposals and thus avoid stagnation. One way to do this is to shape an intrapreneurship culture within the company, something that is not without challenges. The purpose of the following study was to, on the basis of employee statements, carry out an organizational cultural analysis of how a well-established Swedish company captures employees' innovative ideas, as well as opportunities and difficulties with intrapreneurship. The study was conducted as a qualitative, interpretevistic, case study with an inductive approach, whose empirical data were obtained through semi-structured interviews and internal documents. The findings were interpreted abductively using Schein's multilevel model of organizational culture that divides culture into three levels which are exemplified as follows: artifacts – innovation proposal templates and innovation processes, beliefs and values – officially stated goals and published values, as well as basic assumptions – that standardization inhibits specialization, and the role IT can and should play within the organization. The study shows that decentralized and self-governing areas of business can simultaneously handle and evaluate innovation and intrapreneurship in very different ways. One conclusion is that decentralized and self-determined goals can lead to an imbalance, where one area of business accounts for the majority of the organization's total innovation work. As a result of its silo structure, certain problems arise regarding the business areas' ability to share lessons related to innovation processes. This means that the process within which employees submit innovation proposals, and thus also their conditions for doing so, varies depending on where within the organization the individual works. The organization's IT department could to a greater extent assist in innovation and digitalization work, whereupon the relationship between IT and organizational culture is also highlighted. Furthermore, the study found a predominant uniformity between the organization's three cultural levels, where artifacts were largely in line with its acclaimed values of caution and long-term perspective, as well as basic assumptions about optimal risk management.

This master thesis aims to enhance the understanding of innovation processes at the early stages of development and grant praxeological perspective on exploratory projects. Firstly, it provides a bibliographic overview of the previously conducted research within the Innovation Studies field. It discusses innovation systems, institutions and networks, examines the linkage between innovation and knowledge and defines the specificities of the Natural Resource-Based Industries, which constitutes the context of the present study. Then, an analysis on the most popular, within academia and industry, innovation tracking methodologies, their strengths and weaknesses is carried out. The output seeks to contribute with knowledge and assess the available systems. The thesis is anchored in an embedded case study at an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) of heavy machinery for NRBIs and aims to identify the company’s challenges and activities in relation to innovation, as well as possible correlation between them. For this purpose, the research bridges theoretical models on exploratory projects, ambidexterity, Design Thinking (DT) and conceptualization of entrepreneurial management. Findings show that (i) Stevenson’s model of conceptualization of Entrepreneurial Management can be adapted and applied effectively to Innovation Management, (ii) the relationship between exploratory and New Product Development (NPD) projects is more of a parallel, interdependent and overlapping nature rather than linear and sequential and (iii) there is a linkage between the identified challenges and activities. The latter shall (a) serve as a starting point for scholars to carry out further research in the field of Innovation Studies and (b) navigate practitioners through tracking and accelerating innovation at the early stages of development. / Denna masteruppsats syftar till att förbättra för innovationsprocesser i de tidiga utvecklingsstadierna och ge en praxeologisk synvinkel på utforskande projekt. Först ges en bibliografisk översikt över tidigare forskning inom innovationsstudier. Den diskuterar innovationsystem, institutioner och nätverk, undersöker kopplingen mellan innovation och kunskap och definierar särdragen för naturresursbaserade industrier, vilket utgör kontexten för den aktuella studien. Därefter genomförs en analys av de mest populära innovationsuppföljningsmetoderna inom både akademi och industri, deras styrkor och svagheter. Resultatet syftar till att bidra med kunskap och utvärdera tillgängliga system. Uppsatsen är förankrad i en ingående fallstudie hos en originalutrustningstillverkare (OEM) av tunga maskiner för naturresursbaserade industrier och syftar till att identifiera företagets utmaningar och aktiviteter i relation till innovation, samt eventuella samband mellan dem. För detta ändamål kopplar forskningen samman teoretiska modeller om utforskande projekt, ambidextri, Design Thinking (DT) och konceptualisering av entreprenöriellt ledarskap. Resultaten visar att (i) Stevensons modell för konceptualisering av entreprenöriellt ledarskap kan anpassas och tillämpas effektivt på innovationsledning, (ii) relationen mellan utforskande projekt och utveckling av nya produkter (NPD) är mer av en parallell, ömsesidigt beroende och överlappande karaktär snarare än linjär och sekventiell, och (iii) det finns ett samband mellan de identifierade utmaningarna och aktiviteterna. Det senare ska (a) utgöra en utgångspunkt för forskare att genomföra ytterligare forskning inom innovationsstudier och (b) hjälpa praktiker att följa och påskynda innovation i de tidiga utvecklingsstadierna.

Many organizations from and outside of the IT industry are trying to implement Agile in their ways of working via large scale transformations. The organizations feels the need to become Agile in order to increase their client satisfaction, deliver their product faster, and compete in the rapidly changing market. This Master's thesis was conducted at one of the largest energy utilities in the north of Europe, Company C, in order to analyze their R\&D organization after implementing their large scale Agile transformation. The thesis main research question focused on studying how did the large scale Agile transformation effect the organization ambidexterity, knowledge transfer capabilities, and ability to innovate. The question was analyzed qualitatively via an ethnographic design and a set of semi-structured interviews. The results have shown various challenges within the organization that were introduced after the large scale Agile transformation, such as focusing only on customer satisfaction as a measure of success, and the reduction of knowledge transfer capabilities with the department. The analysisand discussions evaluated the connection between those challenges and the large scale Agile transformation. The main takeaways from the Thesis suggested that the Agile transformation provided the necessary tool for the organization to become more exploitative, however, there was no clear connection between the transformation and the diminishing exploratory practices. Moreover, the large scale Agile transformation supported incremental innovations, but did not negatively impact other types of innovation. Finally, the knowledge transfer capabilities were reduced due to the minimal documentation approach that the organization has implemented. / Många organisationer från och utanför IT-branschen försöker implementera Agile i sina arbetssätt genom storskaliga transformationer. Organisationerna känner behov av att bli Agila för att öka sin kundnöjdhet, leverera sina produkter snabbare och konkurrera på den snabbt föränderliga marknaden. Detta masterarbete genomfördes på ett av de största energiföretagen i norra Europa, Company C, för att analysera deras FoU-organisation efter att ha implementerat sin storskaliga agila-transformation. Arbetets huvudsakliga forskningsfråga fokuserade på att studera hur den storskaliga agila-transformationen påverkade organisationens förmåga till ambidextri, kunskapsöverföring och innovationsförmåga. Frågan analyserades kvalitativt genom en etnografisk design och en uppsättning semistrukturerade intervjuer. Resultaten har visat olika utmaningar inom organisationen som introducerades efter den storskaliga Agile-transformationen, såsom att fokusera endast på kundnöjdhet som en måttstock för framgång och minskningen av kunskapsöverföringsförmågan inom avdelningen. Analysen och diskussionerna utvärderade sambandet mellan dessa utmaningar och den storskaliga Agile-transformationen. Huvudpunkterna från arbetet föreslog att Agile-transformationen gav organisationen de nödvändiga verktygen för att bli mer exploaterande, men det fanns ingen tydlig koppling mellan transformationen och minskningen av utforskande praktiker. Dessutom stödde den storskaliga Agile-transformationen inkrementella innovationer men påverkade inte negativt andra typer av innovation. Slutligen minskade kunskapsöverföringsförmågan på grund av den minimala dokumentationsansatsen som organisationen genomfört.

This cumulative dissertation covers the concepts of scenario-based strategic planning and strategic management in family firms over five articles. The first article gives an overview of the cumulative dissertation explaining the research gap, approach and contribution of the dissertation. The paper highlights the two research areas covered by the dissertation with two articles focusing on scenario-based strategic planning and two on strategic management in family firms. The second article is the first of two focusing on scenario-based strategic planning. It introduces and describes a set of six tools facilitating the implementation of scenario-based strategic planning in corporate practice. The third paper adapts these tools to the financial management and controlling context in private companies highlighting the tools’ flexibility in managing uncertain and volatile environments. The fourth article is the first of two focusing on strategic management in family firms. It analyzes organizational ambidexterity as a factor explaining family firm performance. The article shows that a high level of organizational ambidexterity in family firms leads to a higher family firm performance. The final paper concludes the dissertation examining the tendency of family firms to focus on capability exploration or resource exploitation over different generations managing the family firm.

In today’s globalized business world enterprises face increasing competition and accompanying internal and external threats that challenge their enterprise strategies. Multiple examples of enterprises show that long-lasting strategies need to be progressively overworked in order to secure competitiveness. One key for long-term competitiveness seems to lie in the ability to find a reasonable ratio of strategic stability and change. Neglecting the tension of strategic stability and change can have fatal consequences. Strategic management research increasingly focuses on this challenge. Lately research on ambidexterity and dynamic capability attempts to explain the underlying issues of proactively balancing strategic tensions in dynamic markets. Yet, there remain a couple of questions that – unanswered – limit the explanatory power of recent research models. Because of conceptual ambiguities around the concepts of ambidexterity and dynamic capabilities, until now it remains unclear how a balance between strategic stability and change is reached and managed, and how the underlying strategic decision and strategic management processes at the organizational level look like. To address these open issues, this work develops an alternative framework of strategic ambidexterity. It is defined as a deliberate mechanism to detect, monitor, steer, coordinate and balance stability and change of the enterprise strategy. It argues that enterprises do not deal with strategic stability and change accidently. Quite on the contrary, the enterprises’ key actors are aware of this challenge and have a mechanism in place that allows them to deliberately and continuously employ the right ratio of strategic stability and change. This deliberate mechanism is assumed to create performance differences. High-performing enterprises have a particular setting of the mechanism that distinguishes them from low-performing peers and that secures their long-term competitiveness. In order to empirically test the mechanism a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) using a sample of 74 mechanical engineering enterprises is performed. As will be shown there are in fact differences between high and low-performing enterprises. The strategic behavior of high-performing enterprises can be classified as Guided Long-Term Inclusive Planning (GLTIP). This work adds new knowledge to the research on ambidexterity and dynamic capabilities and also contributes to the methodological discussion on the analysis of sustainable competitive advantage in today’s globalized and dynamic markets.