Abstract

Organizational ambidexterity refers to a firm’s ability to pursue both exploitation and exploration orientations. Despite research that suggests ambidexterity is a critical phenomenon in family firms, few studies directly examine the role of ambidexterity over time in family business. This study examines how family firm ambidexterity changes over time as a result of temporal-, firm-, and industry-level factors. We find that family firm ambidexterity is stable over time, punctuated by dramatic changes. We also find that the level of innovation required to compete in an industry is a predictor of changes in exploration versus exploitation over time among family firms.

Keywords

AmbidexterityBusinessPhenomenonIndustrial organizationFamily businessMarketingMicroeconomicsKnowledge managementEconomicsComputer science

Affiliated Institutions

Related Publications

Replication as Strategy

Sidney G. Winter , Gabriel Szulanski

Replication, a familiar phenomenon sometimes referred to as the “McDonalds approach,” entails the creation and operation of a large number of similar outlets that deliver a prod...

2001 Organization Science 1291 citations

Publication Info

Year
2013
Type
article
Volume
27
Issue
1
Pages
20-34
Citations
57
Access
Closed

External Links

View on DOI.org

Social Impact

Altmetric
PlumX Metrics

Social media, news, blog, policy document mentions

Citation Metrics

57
OpenAlex

Cite This

Thomas H. Allison, Aaron F. McKenny, Jeremy C. Short (2013). Integrating Time Into Family Business Research. Family Business Review , 27 (1) , 20-34. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894486513494782

Identifiers

DOI
10.1177/0894486513494782