How do firms adapt to discontinuous change? Bridging the dynamic capabilities and ambidexterity perspectives

California Management Review

Volumn 58, Issue 4, 2016, Pages 36-58

  Birkinshaw, Julian ^a   Zimmermann, Alexander ^b   Raisch, Sebastian ^c  

^a LONDON BUSINESS SCHOOL   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF ST GALLEN   (Switzerland)

^c UNIVERSITY OF GENEVA   (Switzerland)

Author keywords

Business government relations; Case study; Creative collaboration; Crowdsourcing; Data bases; Entrepreneurship; Innovation; Management styles; Organizational design

Indexed keywords

EID: 84989329039     PISSN: 00081256     EISSN: 21628564     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1525/cmr.2016.58.4.36     Document Type: Article

References (53)

1. See for example C. M. Christensen, The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail (Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1997);
2. M. L. Tushman and C. A. O'Reilly, "The Ambidextrous Organization: Managing Evolutionary and Revolutionary Change", California Management Review, 38/4(Summer 1996):8-30.
3. See D. J. Teece, "Explicating Dynamic Capabilities: The Nature and Microfoundations of (Sustainable) Enterprise Performance", Strategic Management Journal, 28/13(December 2007):1319-1350.
4. D. J. Teece, "A Dynamic Capability-Based Entrepreneurial Theory of the Multinational Enterprise", Journal of International Business Studies, 45/1(January 2014):8-37.
5. For an overview, see S. Raisch and J. Birkinshaw, "Organizational Ambidexterity: Antecedents, Outcomes, and Moderators", Journal of Management, 34/3(June 2008):375-409.
6. See S. Raisch, J. Birkinshaw, G. Probst, and M. L. Tushman, "Organizational Ambidexterity: Balancing Exploitation and Exploration for Sustained Performance", Organization Science, 20/4(2009):685-695;
7. C. A. O'Reilly and M. L. Tushman, "Organizational Ambidexterity: Past, Present, and Future", Academy of Management Perspectives, 27/4(November 2013):324-338.
8. K. Eisenhardt and J. Martin, "Dynamic Capabilities: What Are They?" Strategic Management Journal, 21/10-11(October/November 2000):1105-1121;
9. For the introduction of the dynamic capability concept, see D. J. Teece, G. Pisano, and A. Shuen, "Dynamic Capabilities and Strategic Management", Strategic Management Journal, 18/7(August 1997):509-533.
10. The concept has subsequently been developed, for example, by D. J. Teece, "Reflections on 'Profiting from Innovation'", Research Policy, 35/8(October 2006):1131-1146;
11. C. E. Helfat, S. Finkelstein, W. Mitchell, M. Peteraf, H. Singh, D. Teece, and S. Winter, Dynamic Capabilities: Understanding Strategic Change in Organizations (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2007);
12. C. E. Helfat and M. A. Peteraf, "Understanding Dynamic Capabilities: Progress along a Developmental Path", Strategic Organization, 7/1(February 2009):91-102;
13. C. E. Helfat and S. G. Winter, "Untangling Dynamic and Operational Capabilities: Strategy for the (N) ever-Changing World", Strategic Management Journal, 32/11(November 2011):1243-1250;
14. M. Peteraf, G. DiStefano, and G. Verona, "The Elephant in the Room of Dynamic Capabilities: Bringing Two Divergent Conversations Together", Strategic Management Journal, 34/12(December 2013):1389-1410;
15. S. G. Winter, "Understanding Dynamic Capabilities", Strategic Management Journal, 24/10(October 2003):991-995;
16. M. Zollo and S. G. Winter, "Deliberate Learning and the Evolution of Dynamic Capabilities", Organization Science, 13/3(2002):339-351.
17. G. Cepeda and D. Vera, "Dynamic Capabilities and Operational Capabilities: A Knowledge Management Perspective", Journal of Business Research, 60/5(May 2007):426-437;
18. D. Teece, "The Foundations of Enterprise Performance: Dynamic and Ordinary Capabilities in an (Economic) Theory of Firms", Academy of Management Perspectives, 28/4(November 2014):328-352.
19. B. Harreld, C. O'Reilly, and M. Tushman, "Dynamic Capabilities at IBM: Driving Strategy into Action", California Management Review, 49/4(Summer 2007):21-35.
20. Teece (2014), op. cit., as described in L. Gratton and S. Ghoshal, "Beyond Best Practice", MIT Sloan Management Review, 46/3(Spring 2005):49-57.
21. Also, for explicit consideration of the temporal nature of ambidexterity, see Z. Simsek, C. Heavey, J. F. Veiga, and D. Souder, "A Typology for Aligning Organizational Ambidexterity's Conceptualizations, Antecedents, and Outcomes", Journal of Management Studies, 46/5(July 2009):864-894.
22. C. A. O'Reilly, and M. L. Tushman, "Ambidexterity as a Dynamic Capability: Resolving the Innovator's Dilemma", Research on Organizational Behavior, 28(2008):185.
23. See, for example, R. K. Yin, Case Study Research: Design and Methods (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2008).
24. See K. Eisenhardt, "Building Theory from Case Study Research", Academy of Management Review, 14/4(October 1989):532-550
25. as well as K. Eisenhardt and M. E. Graebner, "Theory Building from Cases: Opportunities and Challenges", Academy of Management Journal, 50/1(February 2007):25-32.
26. See A. C. Edmondson and S. E. McManus, "Methodological Fit in Management Field Research", Academy of Management Review, 32/4(October 2007):1155-1179.
27. See, for example, D. C. Galunic and K. M. Eisenhardt, "Architectural Innovation and Modular Corporate Forms", Academy of Management Journal, 44/6(December 2001):1229-1249.
28. Please note that, in some of her work, Eisenhardt also used different sampling techniques, such as cohort sampling of similar cases in the same industry and economic conditions to achieve generalizability (e.g., B. L. Hallen and K. M. Eisenhardt, "Catalyzing Strategies and Efficient Tie Formation: How Entrepreneurial Firms Obtain Investment Ties", Academy of Management Journal, 55/1(February 2012):35-70).
29. Cases may thus serve two purposes: extension of theory through distinct cases that emphasize complementary aspects of a phenomenon, and/or replication of theory through independent corroboration of specific propositions (K. M. Eisenhardt, "Better Stories and Better Constructs: The Case for Rigor and Comparative Logic", Academy of Management Review, 16/3(July 1991):620-627).
30. For definitions of exploration and exploitation, see J. G. March, "Exploration and Exploitation in Organizational Learning", Organization Science, 2/1(February 1991):71-87.
31. See M. B. Miles and A. M. Huberman, Qualitative Data Analyses: An Expanded Sourcebook (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1994)
32. as well as K. Locke, Grounded Theory in Management Research (Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2001).
33. For example: M. L. Tushman and C. O'Reilly, Winning Through Innovation (Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press, 2002);
34. R. Sisodia, J. Sheth, and D. Wolfe, Firms of Endearment (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Business, 2014);
35. S. Ghoshal and C. Bartlett, The Individualized Corporation (London: Heineman, 1999).
36. S. Raisch and F. Ferlic, "Nestlé: Sustaining Growth in Mature Markets" in C. W. Hill, R. D. Ireland, and R. E. Hoskisson, eds., Strategic Management: Competitiveness and Globalization (London: Cengage Learning, 2008).
37. See also S. Raisch, "Balanced Structures: Designing Organizations for Profitable Growth", Long Range Planning, 41/5(October 2008):483-508.
38. R. S. Huckman and E. P. Strick, "GlaxoSmithKline: Reorganizing Drug Discovery", Harvard Business School Teaching Case # 9-605-074, p. 6.
39. G. P. Pisano, "Creating an R&D Strategy", Harvard Business School Working Paper, January 2012.
40. GSK Annual Report (2001).
41. C. B. Gibson and J. Birkinshaw, "The Antecedents, Consequences and Mediating Role of Organizational Ambidexterity", Academy of Management Journal, 47/2(April 2004):209-226;
42. W. K. Smith and M. W. Lewis, "Toward a Theory of Paradox: A Dynamic Equilibrium Model of Organizing", Academy of Management Review, 36/2(April 2011):381-403.
43. Research interview with authors.
44. M. Maculoso, "GSK: The World's Biggest Biotech Start-Up", December 18, 2013, .
45. See a recent report by Gary Pisano, "Creating an R&D Strategy", Harvard Business School 12-095, April 24, 2012.
46. J. Nickerson and T. R. Zenger, "Being Efficiently Fickle: A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Choice", Organization Science, 13/5(2002):547-566;
47. P. Boumgarden, J. Nickerson, and T. R. Zenger, "Sailing into the Wind: Exploring the Relationships among Ambidexterity, Vacillation, and Organizational Performance", Strategic Management Journal, 33/6(June 2012):587-610.
48. See A. Zimmerman, P. Gomez, G. Probst, and S. Raisch, "Creating Societal Benefits and Corporate Profits", MIT Sloan Management Review, 55/3(Spring 2014):18-21.
49. I. Barreto, "Dynamic Capabilities: A Review of Past Research and an Agenda for the Future", Journal of Management, 36/1(January 2010):256-280.
50. See, for example, A. Laplume and P. Dass, "Outstreaming for Ambidexterity: Evolving a Firm's Core Business from Components to Systems by Serving Internal and External Customers", Long Range Planning, 48/3(June 2015):135-150.
51. See C. C. Markides, "Business Model Innovation: What Can the Ambidexterity Literature Teach Us?" Academy of Management Perspectives, 27/4(November 2013):319.
52. See J. Birkinshaw and K. Gupta, "Clarifying the Distinctive Contribution of Ambidexterity to the Field of Organization Studies", Academy of Management Perspectives, 27/4(November 2013):287-298;
53. See A. Zimmermann, S. Raisch, and J. Birkinshaw, "How is Ambidexterity Initiated? The Emergent Charter Definition Process", Organization Science, 26/4(2015):1119-1139.