Elena Krause-Söhner explores how the dynamics of organizational ambidexterity can be managed in complex organizations. This is a relevant question as today’s organizations and the individuals within them face the challenge of focusing on short term improvements while simultaneously targeting long-term innovation in a dynamic environment. Drawing on a practice-based perspective and the view of organizations as socially constructed and constantly changing entities, organizational enacting and constructing change activities are investigated based on profound conceptual and empirical base in an industry and service context. This book derives implications for both the theoretical discourse and for practitioners.

Today’s companies in diverse industries perceive increasing competition and an accelerating pace of change. To cope with these challenges, they need to leverage their current competencies and exploit existing products and services, while simultaneously build new capabilities to develop innovative solutions. Therefore, instead of selecting and maintaining a focus on either efficiency or flexibility, these firms balance resource allocation and become so-called ambidextrous organizations. W. Henning Blarr analyzes this balancing act, requiring the ability to simultaneously pursue both incremental and discontinuous change. He shows that compared to organizations focusing on either exploitative or explorative activities, ambidextrous organizations significantly obtain higher levels of financial performance.

In the past few years, a number of well-known firms have failed; think of Blockbuster, Kodak, or RadioShack. When we read about their demise, it often seems inevitable—a natural part of "creative destruction." But closer examination reveals a disturbing truth: Companies large and small are shuttering more quickly than ever. What does it take to buck this trend? The simple answer is: ambidexterity. Firms must remain competitive in their core markets, while also winning in new domains. Innovation guru Clayton M. Christensen has been pessimistic about whether established companies can prevail in the face of disruption, but Charles A. O'Reilly III and Michael L. Tushman know they can! The authors explain how shrewd organizations have used an ambidextrous approach to solve their own innovator's dilemma. They contrast these luminaries with companies which—often trapped by their own successes—have been unable to adapt and grow. Drawing on a vast research program and over a decade of helping companies to innovate, the authors present a set of practices to guide firms as they adopt ambidexterity. Top-down and bottom-up leaders are key to this process—a fact too often overlooked in the heated debate about innovation. But not in this case. Readers will come away with a new understanding of how to improve their existing businesses through efficiency, control, and incremental change, while also seizing new markets where flexibility, autonomy, and experimentation rule the day.

Across the last 50 years, there have been increasing studies on Organizational Ambidexterity (OA). However, there has been a disproportionate focus on the theory underpinning OA with less recourse to the implementation of OA. The primary purpose of this book is to close gaps in the understanding of Organizational Ambidexterity Implementation (OAI) and its relationship with organizational performance. It identifies key components crucial for successful OAI, including dynamic capabilities, organizational culture, organizational design and market orientation. The scope encompasses both qualitative and quantitative analysis, investigating the factors that drive or obstruct OAI and assessing performance disparities among organizations. This book is intended for academics, researchers, and professionals interested in corporate strategy with focus on the management of organizational resources and capabilities within organizational structure and design for performance improvement. It serves as a valuable resource for those seeking to understand how organizational culture, dynamic capabilities, market orientation, and design impact the successful implementation of ambidexterity and, consequently, overall organizational performance. Additionally, business leaders and managers can gain insights to help their organizations evaluate and enhance their abilities in these critical areas, ultimately fostering a culture of innovation and efficiency.

This book is a primer on organizational ambidexterity: being able to both exploit and explore. It reviews culture, leadership, learning, and structure as elements of ambidexterity; addresses the environment of complexity; and offers strategies for cultivating an ambidextrous mind and an ambidextrous organization.

Family-owned and family-run firms, which are mostly small and medium-sized enterprises, are important when it comes to tourist destinations. It is therefore essential to understand how family firms address future risks and the challenges they face as part of the tourism industry. Since family businesses play such an important role for the entire tourism industry, it is worthwhile to analyze this business type when it comes to organizational resilience. Further, the development of practical solutions from field or case studies are beneficial for creating valuable learning effects for both firms and destinations alike. The examination of one risk scenario and its successful or missing management might be beneficial to create useful learning effects for the future. Therefore, it is essential to understand contemporary issues and future challenges of family firms in the hospitality/service industry and to examine different perspectives at an individual, firm, and destination management level. Resiliency Models and Addressing Future Risks for Family Firms in the Tourism Industry provides an in-depth examination of tourism family firms, since these firms are essential for supplying solutions for challenges such as dealing with uncertainty, becoming or remaining resilient, and creating sustainable tourism destinations. The chapters address the challenges of sustainability and resilience in an uncertain world and connects knowledge from family business research to tourism research, focusing on hospitality. Highlighted topics include organization ambidexterity, pandemic risk, firm management and leadership, and technology use in firm operations. This book is essential for family firms, hotel management, entrepreneurs, restaurateurs, tourism professionals, academicians, researchers, and students seeking the most advanced research on family firm’s resilience and risk management within the tourism industry.

This book prepares leaders for fundamental change processes of organizations. In times of radical changes and unplanned crises, ambidexterity has become a key competence of global companies. Ambidextrous organizations manage to improve their core business, while at the same time opening up new business fields for the future. To unlock innovation next to the running business, it is essential for leaders to be ambidextrous. How these balanced leaders can operate with two different styles is demonstrated in numerous practical examples and tips for successful implementation. The book illustrates how the trade-off can be turned into an elegant balancing act. Learn how to become an ambidextrous leader in this standard work on ambidexterity and leadership. · Ambidexterity as a leadership approach for the digital transformation · Consciously shaping the digital change process · Enabling leaps in innovation · Driving evolution and revolution simultaneously · The relevance of ambidextrous leadership in times of crisis The book provides easy-to-implement courses of action for executives to consciously and actively shape change, to inspire people in companies to release their creative potential and to make the leap into the future as an organization. The book also addresses the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on crisis management. It documents how ambidextrous leadership skills are becoming a key competence in times of crisis.