Abstract:

Organizational ambidexterity, which constitutes the efforts of an organization to balance its tendencies to exploit current demands while at the same time explore new opportunities, is a notion which has been studied extensively over the years. Scholars have addressed organizational ambidexterity through a large spectrum of different levels including the individual, the team, the unit and the firm levels of analysis. It is noted however, that limited research has been conducted on the factors which affect organizational ambidexterity from a cross-level point of view, i.e. the antecedents which influence firm level ambidexterity from higher or lower levels. Additionally, further work has yet to be made to expand organizational ambidexterity literature from a network level perspective. Our paper proposes that firm level ambidexterity can be affected by certain network level characteristics related to its network structure, its network connectivity and its network governance mechanisms. In this respect, we find that partner portfolio diversification and network centrality can boost the efforts of firms to become ambidextrous, when less complex governance mechanisms are employed. For the quantitative analysis, we utilize the generalized estimation method ( GEE ) in combination with the Citeline database, which involves a portfolio of US firms developing drugs and conducting clinical trials in different stages, by establishing licensing agreements with other firms. Among others, the paper introduces a new measure for approximating network governance.

Please choose your submission type: Full Paper

Primary Track: Inter-Organizational Collaboration: Partnerships, Alliances and Networks

Keywords: Alliances;Inter-organizational networks;Inter-organizational organizations;Inter-organizational projects;Inter-organizational relations;Resource-based view;Social network perspective;Transaction cost;Innovation, R&D, technology

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Prof EVANGELOS SYRIGOS