Entrepreneur ambidexterity

Ambidexterity = the ability both to explore and “search for new, useful adaptions”, and exploit through “the use and propagation of known adaptions”. This is vital to the survival and performance of organizations. Firms should maintain a balance between exploration and exploitation.
There has been scant attention to what makes an individual ambidexterious.

Several reasons warrant the examination of entrepreneur ambidexterity in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs): 1. Small business have limited resource endowments. Since exploration and exploitation compete for scarce resources, attention and organizational routines, the situation is likely to heighten the paradoxes facing entrepreneurs. 2. Most SMEs are owned and managed by one individual or a very small group of individuals: the owner-manager makes virtually all the strategic decisions.

Ambidexterity: 1. Literally: the ability to use both hands with equal ease. 2. In management: used to refer to an organization’s ability to do two seemingly paradoxical things simultaneously: * To explore and exploit * Be efficient and be flexible * Align and adapt

Distinction between exploration and exploitation (March): * Exploration: includes things like research, variation, risk-taking, experimentation, play, flexibility, discovery, innovation. * Exploitation: includes thing like improvement, choice, production, efficiency, implementation, execution.
According to March, organizational ambidexterity has been traditionally viewed as an organization-level construct that manifests itself in an organization’s explorative and exploitative attainments.
Managers who strive to engage in both exploration and exploitation face a paradox: while exploration and exploitation complement each other in generating a high level of performance, the