How to evolve towards Organizational Ambidexterity: Lessons from Basque Small and Medium Enterprises in Customer-based Innovation Contexts

Abstract

Customer-based innovation (CBI) contexts can facilitate the journey from exploitation to exploration in SMEs in order to evolve towards organizational ambidexterity. However, the transition towards ambidexterity is not an easy journey and managers deal with different tensions regarding the balance between explorative and exploitative processes. The paper presents an inductive research, based on the in-depth analysis of four Basque innovative SMEs that have been able to develop an organizational ambidexterity strategy in CBI contexts. In this attempt, first, we contribute to the theory identifying the specific risks associated with the transition towards ambidexterity in SMEs. Second, we provide a qualitative study to understand how exploitation transit through ambidexterity can be done successfully and finally, we propose some lessons to help SMEs in this transition period.