Towards a Cognitive Dimension in the Organizational Ambidexterity Framework

Abstract

Organizations face a continuous struggle for strategic renewal in the pursuit of breaking path dependencies under internal and external demands (Schmitt et al., 2016). One important perspective on strategic renewal is organizational ambidexterity – the organization’s ability to manage contradictory strategic dualities, such as exploration and exploitation, at the same time. Interest in organizational ambidexterity has burgeoned during the past decade, with scholars appreciating its applicability and versatility (Birkinshaw and Gupta, 2013). Organizations and their managers are confronted with choices and tradeoffs among competing objectives all the time, and thus, the ambidexterity framework provides a readily applicable and normative perspective.