Exploitative dominant balanced ambidexterity solving the paradox of innovation strategies in SMEs

Abstract

Ambidexterity, referred as the adoption of both exploitation and exploration strategies, has received momentum in organisation research and particularly in innovation management on SMEs. Despite the intuitive appeal of ambidexterity, the ambidexterity-performance relationship is not straightforward, particularly for SMEs whose resource constraints make the successful implementation of an ambidextrous posture cumbersome. Secondly, there is conceptual ambiguity on the concept of the balance dimension of ambidexterity. Based on a hierarchical oriented view to dynamic capabilities, strategic flexibility and ambidexterity are found contingent with SMEs performance in a dynamic business environment. This study applied a mixed method of research on a sample of Iranian SMEs. The result shows that the exploitative dominant balanced ambidexterity enhances the effectiveness of implementing flexible strategies in SMEs.