20 Years of Research on Organizational Ambidexterity: A Critical Review and a Tentative Model for Future Research

Abstract

Since Marchs seminal work on exploration and exploitation, a new stream of research has emerged, addressing the question of how to balance the conflicting demands of exploration and exploitation, or in other words, how to reach organizational ambidexterity. Recent reviews in the field however, criticize a general inconsistency in approaches, underlying theories, and point out the need for more research on the basic principles and measurements. This qualitative review study aims to address these gaps in knowledge. and will not just review the relevant literature, but also synthesize and integrate findings and definitions, organize and frame the existing knowledge, and finally outline paths for future research.