Ambidexterity under scrutiny: Exploration and exploitation via internal organization, alliances, and acquisitions
研究了企业如何在内部组织、联盟和收购三种模式中平衡探索与利用，发现跨模式平衡比模式内平衡更能提升绩效，基于190家美国软件公司的分析。
Prior research on ambidexterity has limited its concern to balancing exploration and exploitation via particular modes of operation. Acknowledging the interplay of tendencies to explore versus exploit via the internal organization, alliance, and acquisition modes, we claim that balancing these tendencies within each mode undermines firm performance because of conflicting routines, negative transfer, and limited specialization. Nevertheless, by exploring in one mode and exploiting in another, i.e., balancing across modes, a firm can avoid some of these impediments. Thus, we advance ambidexterity research by asserting that balance across modes enhances performance more than balance within modes. Our analysis of 190 U.S .‐based software firms further reveals that exploring via externally oriented modes such as acquisitions or alliances, while exploiting via internal organization, enhances these firms' performance . Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.