As the growing body of literature draws on various theoretical perspectives of ambidexterity - an organization’s ability to balance both exploration and exploitation activities - an important stream has emerged that focuses on the role of leaders in the development of ambidexterity. This thesis is seeking to advance knowledge on how SME leaders engage in ambidextrous leadership to respond to the complexities of innovation and improve employee’s innovative behaviors as well as overall business performance. Using survey generated data from 98 SMEs, the first paper reveals that opening and closing leadership behaviors predicted employee explorative and exploitative innovation behaviors respectively above all control variables. The combination of both leadership behaviors also predicted employee ambidexterity. A significant revelation was that the effect of ambidextrous leadership behaviors on employee innovation behaviors is mediated by adaptive/flexible leadership behavior. The second paper investigates the association of potentially relevant antecedents: personality traits, emotional intelligence, adaptive/flexible leadership, transformational leadership and transactional leadership to ambidextrous leadership behaviors (including opening leadership behaviors and closing leadership behaviors). With the exception of personality traits which showed no relationship to ambidextrous leadership, the other independent variables showed varying relationships to ambidextrous leadership. Using a qualitative methodology (interviews), the third paper explores ambidextrous leadership behaviors in female entrepreneurs in relation to gender-role identity. Our findings from semi-structured interviews with 14 female entrepreneurs in Wales reveal that female leaders in our study are mostly androgynous and ambidextrous. Our results demonstrate that female entrepreneurs have little or no consideration for gender stereotypes in performing their leadership duties. Rather, greater focus is placed on demonstrating their competence using traits and leadership behaviors that drive goal accomplishment including the integration of stereotypic masculine and feminine leadership behaviors as considered necessary. Additionally, we observe that the choice of leadership behavior/trait that is emphasized at any point in time is contingent on contextual or situational demands of work as well as individual competencies of the entrepreneur. Overall, this thesis highlights theoretical and practical implications for ambidextrous leadership. Further, it provides steps towards effective understanding of ambidextrous leadership development and practical applications. This thesis indicates that ambidextrous leadership is important for SMEs seeking to enhance employee innovative work behaviors.

Ambidextrous organizations are more successful as they manage to balance exploitative and explorative innovation. Organizations performance depend on the people both within the respective firm and externally, how the firm’s offerings are received. In order to stay relevant and competitive in a continuously changing environment the need for ambidextrous behavior becomes constant. The ability to handle, or at best anticipate, upcoming opportunities or set- backs to co-ordinate and combine exploitative and explorative innovations is a competitive advantage. As leadership drives performance – this puts both focus and expectations on leaders. The aim of this study was to explore ambidextrous leadership from a holistic view and more specifically; what triggers ambidextrous needs, how can ambidexterity be enabled and cultivated. Literature on ambidexterity comes in various approaches, where studies holding a holistic approach are few. Bridging the theories on ambidextrous needs with those on leadership and contrasting them to findings from this qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews. The conclusions indicated both theoretical evidence but also contradictory findings. The need for ambidexterity is unison, however, where literature focus on the paradoxical tension of managing both exploitative and explorative innovation, this is not an option for the leaders. Change is their reality having to be handled holistically. Predominantly digitalisation, globalisation and pace of change require firms’ ambidextrous initiatives in a perpetual cyclical movement through the dimensions of drive, lead and learn. Furthermore, there are additional parameters emerging as key for facilitating ambidexterity: as the impact of culture, communication and external monitoring alertness are highlighted.

Organizations that can successfully develop both radical and incremental innovations positively impact sustained competitive advantage, dramatically improving their chances of survival and success in both dynamic and stable environments (Han et al. 2001; Tushman and O'Reilly 1996). Experimentation and radical innovation are mandatory knowledge assets for competitive play in emerging markets, but efficiency and incremental innovation are essential for mature markets (He and Wong 2004; Tushman and O'Reilly 1996). The attainment of dual focus between radical and incremental innovation is challenging and calls for organizational architectures of sometimes conflicting processes, structure, and culture (cf, Tushman and O'Reilly 1996; Wind and Mahajan 1997). While prior research has investigated the structural and cultural determinants (Duncan 1976; Gibson and Birkenshaw 2004), there is a significant lack of research addressing the third major element of business processes. Without winning business processes in place that influence both exploration and exploitation, a successful portfolio mix of radical and incremental product innovations that maximize customer value and benefits will not be fully realized, and firm performance will suffer. Through core business processes, marketing's role and influence is significant in increasing customer value creation in the resulting product innovations. By mapping the "inside-out" and "outside-in" processes of a market-driven organization (Day 1994) into the Srivastava et al. (1999) core business process framework, this dissertation develops and tests a model of business process influence on dual focus in innovation strategies in the context of the high technology manufacturing environment. Each of these processes is critical in generating maximum customer value and is an explicit input into strategic choices and decisions (Srivastava et al. 1999). Specifically, it is argued and proposed that the Product Development Management (PDM) process, comprised of the processes of market experimentation, technology monitoring, and technology competence, predominantly influences exploration while the Supply Chain Management (SCM) process, comprised of the processes of channel bonding and quality process management, predominantly influences exploitation. The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) process, encompassing the processes of lead user collaboration, competitor benchmarking, and current customer knowledge process, acts as a moderator to add dual focus to these extremes by interacting with PDM processes to enhance exploitation and with SCM processes to enhance exploration. Furthermore, it is proposed that firms successfully achieving a dual focus have greater firm performance than firms entrenched in either extreme. Hypotheses were tested with data collected from a nationwide sample of high technology manufacturers. The results largely supported the main effect hypotheses of the PDM processes and SCM processes on exploration and exploitation. Additionally, the hypothesis of a positive interaction between exploration and exploitation on firm performance was also supported, however no visible support was garnered for the moderating impacts of CRM processes on PDM and SCM processes as hypothesized. Post hoc analyses were performed, bringing additional insight into dual focus based on the successful implementation of opposing businesses processes. Specifically, dual focus firms were shown to have multiple processes in place that impact both types of innovation strategies and that these firms implement these processes to a greater extent than those firms operating in the more extreme positions. Academic and managerial implications are discussed, as well as study limitations and exciting future research directions.

Na busca pela viabilidade do negócio, as empresas devem considerar e lidar com os cenários atuais e futuros. Para tanto, algumas procuram adquirir habilidades em extrair resultados de seus recursos atuais pelas inovações incrementais enquanto exploram simultaneamente novas competências para desenvolver inovações mais radicais que proporcionem perspectivas futuras de negócios, e por esta característica dual tais companhias são classificadas de organizações ambidestras. Contudo, o desafio de administrar simultaneamente as duas atividades geram paradoxos - as tensões ambidestras - que influenciam tanto as escolhas estratégicas de implementação quanto as mudanças na arquitetura organizacional para inovação. Logo, o propósito deste trabalho é investigar a influência destas tensões na arquitetura organizacional e identificar quais são os fatores que colaboram com as mudanças. Os resultados apontam que os fatores externos competição e especificidades do mercado são determinantes na adoção de estratégias ambidestras; já entre os fatores internos, o modelo de negócios, as crenças e a capacidade inovadora vigente são direcionadores na escolha da arquitetura organizacional para inovação. Além disso, as características das tensões ambidestras, a intensidade dessa dualidade e sua ortogonalidade estratégica em relação à atual capacidade inovadora também interferem nas mudanças da arquitetura organizacional. Esta tese propõe ainda um modelo vetorial para explicar as influências e os fenômenos analisados. / In the pursuit of business viability, companies must consider and deal with current and future scenarios. For such, some companies seek acquiring skills in extracting results from their present resources for incremental innovations whilst simultaneously exploring new competences to develop more radical innovations that provide them future business prospects, and due to this dual characteristic such companies are classified as ambidextrous organizations. However, the challenge of simultaneously administering the two activities creates paradoxes - the ambidextrous tensions - that influence both the strategic choices of implementation and the changes in the organizational architecture for innovation. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of these tensions in the organizational architecture and to identify which factors collaborate with those changes. The results indicate the external factors of competition and specificities of the market are decisive in the adoption of ambidextrous strategies; whereas amongst internal factors, the business model, the beliefs and the current innovative ability are drivers in the choice of the organizational architecture for innovation. Furthermore, the characteristics of the ambidextrous tensions, the intensity of this duality and its strategic orthogonality regarding the current innovative ability also interfere in the changes of the organizational architecture. This thesis also proposes a vectorial model to explain such analyzed phenomena and influences.

Na busca pela viabilidade do negócio, as empresas devem considerar e lidar com os cenários atuais e futuros. Para tanto, algumas procuram adquirir habilidades em extrair resultados de seus recursos atuais pelas inovações incrementais enquanto exploram simultaneamente novas competências para desenvolver inovações mais radicais que proporcionem perspectivas futuras de negócios, e por esta característica dual tais companhias são classificadas de organizações ambidestras. Contudo, o desafio de administrar simultaneamente as duas atividades geram paradoxos - as tensões ambidestras - que influenciam tanto as escolhas estratégicas de implementação quanto as mudanças na arquitetura organizacional para inovação. Logo, o propósito deste trabalho é investigar a influência destas tensões na arquitetura organizacional e identificar quais são os fatores que colaboram com as mudanças. Os resultados apontam que os fatores externos competição e especificidades do mercado são determinantes na adoção de estratégias ambidestras; já entre os fatores internos, o modelo de negócios, as crenças e a capacidade inovadora vigente são direcionadores na escolha da arquitetura organizacional para inovação. Além disso, as características das tensões ambidestras, a intensidade dessa dualidade e sua ortogonalidade estratégica em relação à atual capacidade inovadora também interferem nas mudanças da arquitetura organizacional. Esta tese propõe ainda um modelo vetorial para explicar as influências e os fenômenos analisados. / In the pursuit of business viability, companies must consider and deal with current and future scenarios. For such, some companies seek acquiring skills in extracting results from their present resources for incremental innovations whilst simultaneously exploring new competences to develop more radical innovations that provide them future business prospects, and due to this dual characteristic such companies are classified as ambidextrous organizations. However, the challenge of simultaneously administering the two activities creates paradoxes - the ambidextrous tensions - that influence both the strategic choices of implementation and the changes in the organizational architecture for innovation. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of these tensions in the organizational architecture and to identify which factors collaborate with those changes. The results indicate the external factors of competition and specificities of the market are decisive in the adoption of ambidextrous strategies; whereas amongst internal factors, the business model, the beliefs and the current innovative ability are drivers in the choice of the organizational architecture for innovation. Furthermore, the characteristics of the ambidextrous tensions, the intensity of this duality and its strategic orthogonality regarding the current innovative ability also interfere in the changes of the organizational architecture. This thesis also proposes a vectorial model to explain such analyzed phenomena and influences.

Cette recherche contribue à identifier les principaux déterminants de l’ambidextrie dans le contexte de la PME; à proposer un modèle conceptuel qui témoigne des connaissances actuelles sur cet objet d’étude et à permettre une meilleure compréhension des facteurs organisationnels et managériaux favorisant la combinaison des innovations d’exploitation et d’exploration au sein des PME.Il sera donc question du concept d’ambidextrie organisationnelle et sa teneur à part dans le cadre des PME, du rôle central de l’entrepreneur ambidextre en tant que source et facilitateur de l’ambidextrie, de l’impact de la spécificité de ce type de structure sur les formes d’ambidextrie adoptées ainsi que de l’importance du réseau externe pour assurer la poursuite simultanée des innovations d’exploitation et d’exploration. L’apport de cette recherche est de permettre, à travers l’étude approfondie de sept cas de PME innovantes en Bretagne, d’intégrer les spécificités de la PME dans la conciliation de la double exigence d’innovation et de montrer que cette ambidextrie organisationnelle est envisageable pour une PME innovante malgré la contrainte de ressources spécifiques à ces organisations. / This research contributes to identify the main determiners of the ambidextrous in the context of the SME (SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISE); to propose an abstract model which shows current knowledge on this object of study and to allow a better understanding of the organizational and management factors(mailmen) favoring the combination(overall) of the innovations of exploitation(operation) and exploration within SME(small and medium-sized enterprise). It will thus be question of the concept of organizational ambidextrous and its content to share(unit) within the framework of SME(SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISE), of the central role of the ambidextrous entrepreneur as source(spring) and facilitator of the ambidextrous, the impact of the specificity of this type of structure on the forms(shapes) of ambidextrous adopted as well as the importance of the external network to assure(insure) the simultaneous pursuit(continuation) of the innovations of exploitation(operation) and of exploration. The contribution of this search(research) is to allow, through the innovative in-depth study of seven cases of SME(SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISE) in Brittany, to integrate(join) the specificities of the SME(SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISE) into the conciliation of the double requirement of innovation and to show that this organizational ambidextrous is possible for an innovative SME(SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISE) in spite of the constraint of resources specific to these organizations.

An increasing pressure is found on public sector organisations both to be efficient and innovative. Recently ambidexterity has found its ground in the public sector showing significant impact on firm performance. Combined with the increasing pressure from society for conducting sustainable business, we aimed at investigating how structural ambidexterity in regard to sustainability relates to sustainability performance, and how this relationship is moderated by centralisation and connectedness. A quantitative method has been used where the Swedish municipal housing organisations were surveyed. 141 different municipal housing organisations participated in the survey. A content analysis was also done with the help of the TBL to measure the organisations sustainability performance. The results from the dissertation showed that ambidextrous sustainability leads to sustainability performance. No moderating effect from centralisation and connectedness was found on the relationship between ambidextrous sustainability and sustainability performance. This dissertation sets the ground for a new concept of ambidextrous sustainability. Furthermore, contributing to strategic public management as well as further expanding on the stakeholder approach and the moderating effect of stakeholders. The dissertation also contributes methodologically by measuring sustainability performance with the TBL through a content analysis as well as how to measure ambidextrous sustainability.

The relatively new concept of ambidextrous leadership in innovation with the opposing yet complementary opening and closing leader behaviors has been proven to be positively related to fostering explorative and exploitative behaviors respectively among subordinates. The initiators of this concept propose that leaders in innovation need a ‘temporal flexibility to switch’ between opening and closing leader behaviors, which implies a sequential alignment of these behaviors. This proposition has yet remained theoretically and empirically unexplored and is initially questioned in this thesis with respect to related theoretical concepts. Therefore, this thesis aims to explain how innovation leaders align the recently defined opening and closing leader behaviors throughout the innovation process. By following a qualitative and inductive research approach, a multiple case study of five innovation leaders in German manufacturing companies was conducted. The data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews. The empirical data reveal that the initiators’ proposition of a sequential alignment is not sufficient to explain the complex alignment of opening and closing leader behaviors. Accordingly, a model which illustrates a predominantly simultaneous alignment of the two leader behaviors was developed. However, this model also considers that urgent situations or specific project phases and times of the year require innovation leaders to sequentially demonstrate one behavior at a time.

Background:  The reallocation of resources is changing with the rapid growth of business and the changing products and technologies in most countries around the world. Information technology (IT) outsourcing is one way to access resources efficiently. Meanwhile, software and IT service providers, in particular, rely significantly on innovation to stay competitive and fulfill their clients' continuously changing expectations (Blumenberg et al., 2009). Knowledge transferring is a source of innovation, which helps employees actively acquire their explicit and tacit knowledge from their clients to realize ambidextrous innovative performances. Purpose:   The goal of our research is to investigate the association between the two different knowledge transfer mechanisms from the clients to the suppliers, ambidextrous innovation and innovation performance of suppliers’ employees in the software and IT services industry. The research also aims to identify whether ambidextrous innovation has mediating effects on the relationship. On the basis of a literature review of the topic, a total of 17 hypotheses are proposed.  Method:   As for the research methodology, this research adopts a realist ontology and a positivist epistemology. Through a web-based questionnaire survey of 250 employees from the software and IT industries, the research collected relevant data about knowledge transfer, employees’ ambidextrous innovation, and employees’ innovation performance and the approach is purposive and snowball sampling. In addition, we conducted a pretest to ensure the web-based survey’s questionnaire is reliable and valid. SPSS 28.0 was used as the tool for data analysis, and the methods of analysis mainly included descriptive statistics analysis, reliability analysis, validity analysis, and correlation analysis and linear regression. Conclusion:  Our research established a framework to show the association between two types of knowledge transfer mechanisms, employees’ ambidextrous innovation and employees' innovation performance. It has been found that the transfer of explicit and tacit knowledge from clients to suppliers' employees has a statistically significant positive association with the employees' innovation performance in the suppliers’ companies of software and IT services industry. Furthermore, explicit knowledge transfer has a stronger association with employees' ambidextrous innovation compared to tacit knowledge transfer. The analysis also pointed out that exploratory innovation, rather than exploitative innovation, is proven to have a higher association with employees’ innovation performance. In addition, a mediating role of ambidextrous innovation between knowledge transfer and innovation performance is also identified in our research. Our research also took gender into consideration to examine the consistency of the results across gender conditions.

Managing the paradox of exploitation and exploration symbolises the simultaneous pursuit devoting enough resources to exploitation to ensure short-term profits and, at the same time, enough resources to exploration to ensure future organisational viability. Previous research advocates that sustained organisational performance and success highly depends on the interaction of exploitation and exploration or in other words, the balancing act between change and continuity. To strategically balance these contradictory requirements is a challenging task for most organisations since exploitation and exploration require fundamentally different organisational structures, processes, strategies and capabilities. Organisations that possess the ability to balance these contradictory requirements are referred to as ambidextrous organisations, what is evident is however that different ambidextrous strategies bring several distinctive challenges that organisations explicitly must deal with. Past literature advocates that management constitute an important part in creating organisational ambidexterity, but has nevertheless due to differentiations in organisational contexts resulted in ambiguous guidance in how to practically solve the tensions between exploitation and exploration.  Scania the initiator of this thesis project, one of the world´s leading manufacturers within trucks and buses for heavy transport applications is sensing uncertainty in what undoubtedly used to be a relatively stable environment. Continues improvements has been a fundamental strategy in R&D for decades but in the face of a potentially disruptive technological shift, Scania senses urgency to leverage the innovation capability they possess, to reclaim the exploration space in order to act and seize upon these uncertainties. The purpose of this thesis is to explore how management can support and sustain the exploration space in a mature R&D department.  This study builds upon a qualitative case study limited to a specific R&D department, Truck Chassis Development. To draw parallels and provide a deepened understanding of how the specific context of the organisation affect section managers at Truck Chassis Development in supporting and enabling exploration, interview data from several departments at R&D and sales & marketing is analysed.  Results from this research show that there is an overall pressure for exploitation in R&D in general, and that section management encounter several challenges in supporting and sustaining the exploration space. An overall pressure for delivery precision crowds out time for exploration and present performance measurements are found to further add to this challenge since they are, to a large extent designed to measure and follow-up the relatively more certain and superior benefits from exploitation, implying that they tend to induce and support exploitative activities. The research findings provide managerial implications in terms of directing attention towards exploration through measurements of exploration. / Att balansera innovationsparadoxen syftar till den organisatoriska förmågan att tillägna tillräckliga resurser för exekvering för att säkerställa kortsiktig vinst, och samtidigt, tillägna tillräckliga resurser till utforskande för att säkra ett strategiskt framtida läge. Tidigare forskning visar att organisationers långsiktiga överlevnad är beroende av dessa avvägningar, att leverera produkter med högt kundvärde är viktigt för dagens affär men får inte göras på bekostnad av att utforska möjligheter som kan resultera i framtida innovationer. Att strategiskt balansera dessa  två perspektiv utgör en stor utmaning för alla organisationer eftersom att exekvering och utforskande aktiviteter kräver helt olika förutsättningar när det kommer till strukturer, processer och strategier. Företag som besitter förmågan att balansera dessa två helt olika perspektiv brukar refereras som tvehänta. Tvehänta organisationer har visat sig balansera dessa två perspektiv på olika sätt, vilka alla medför utmaningar, dock av olika slag. Tidigare forskning har betonat ledarskap och chefskap som viktiga faktorer i skapandet av tvehänta organisationer men har på grund av organisatoriska differentieringar och olikheter resulterat i vaga riktlinjer angående hur man praktiskt löser de utmaningar som uppstår mellan exekverande och utforskande aktiviteter.  Scania, initiativtagare till detta arbete är ett av världens ledande tillverkare inom lastbil och buss för tunga transporter. Scania känner osäkerhet i vad som brukade vara en således stabil bransch. Ständiga förbättringar har varit en betydelsefull strategi i decennier för forskning och utveckling, FoU, men inför ett eventuellt teknikskifte inser man att en betydligt större del av arbetet måste syfta till utforskande aktiviteter.  Syftet med detta examensarbete är att undersöka hur management kan möjliggöra och främja utforskande aktiviteter i en mogen FoU-avdelning. Den utförda forskningen grundar sig i en kvalitativ fallstudie som är avgränsad till en specifik FoU-avdelning, chassiutveckling för lastbil. För att få en djupare förståelse för ledarskap och det ledarskapsansvar som finns i att främja och stödja utforskande aktiviteter kräver vissa organisatoriska förutsättningar har ett flertal avdelningar inom FoU-organisationen samt sälj & marknad inkluderats i studien. Den utförda forskningen visar att chefer på den undersökta avdelningen möter av ett flertal utmaningar när de försöker möjliggöra och främja utforskande aktiviteter. Det grundar sig främst i ett högt focus på leveransprecision som  begränsar chefer i sin roll att stödja och främja utforskande aktiviteter, följden av detta resulterar i  begränsat med tid för utforskande eftersom dessa aktiviteter inte  prioriteras. Nuvarande prestationsmätning visar indikationer på att ytterligare bidra till dessa utmaningar eftersom de avser att mäta till den största grad, leveransprecision, kvalité och kostnad och där utforskande aktiviteter saknar prestationsmätning. Resultatet av denna studie bidrar med praktiska implikationer för den studerade avdelningen. Eftersom att uppmärksamhet är den mest begränsade resursen har mätvärden för utforskande aktiviteter föreslagits då mätning och styrning av utforskande aktiviteter kan bidra till att dessa aktiviteter uppmärksammas samtidigt som de kan utgöra ett stöd för sektionscheferna i deras roll att främja och stödja utforskande aktiviteter.