Separated, yet integrated: exploring how ambidextrous firms manage integration of structurally separated units for exploration
| dc.contributor.author | Mattus, Lisa | |
| dc.contributor.author | Olausson, Astrid | |
| dc.contributor.department | Chalmers tekniska högskola / Institutionen för teknikens ekonomi och organisation | sv |
| dc.contributor.department | Chalmers University of Technology / Department of Technology Management and Economics | en |
| dc.contributor.examiner | Kohn Rådberg, Kamilla | |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Kohn Rådberg, Kamilla | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-06-26T11:27:12Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-06-26T11:27:12Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2024 | |
| dc.date.submitted | ||
| dc.description.abstract | n the pursuit of long-term survival in the ever-changing turbulent business environment faced by contemporary firms, many turn to the concept of ambidexterity, seeking to optimize incremental and radical innovation simultaneously to compete in the present as well as the future. While extensive research has emphasized the need for structurally separating explorative and exploitative activities to succeed with becoming ambidextrous, scholars have pointed to the importance of a carefully managed interface between the two to facilitate the development and eventual transfer of radical innovation, as well as enable the enacting of synergies. However, empirical evidence on how companies actually organize and manage this balance between integration, to enable cross-fertilization, and separation, to mitigate the risks of cross-contamination, in practice is lacking. The Volvo Group is an established firm with a long history of pursuing an explicit ambidextrous innovation strategy to achieve long-term performance. Currently, the Emerging Technology team, dedicated to the most radical form of innovation within the Volvo Group Trucks Technology (GTT) department, is revamping its operations to propel the organization’s technological advance- ment. Thereby, this multiple-case study, conducted on four companies in various industries, aims to explore how innovative, established companies with ambidextrous ambitions organize and manage the integration of structurally separated units for explorative innovation with the core operational business, as well as what major challenges these companies encounter in balancing separation and integration. Through 20 semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders in the integration process across all examined cases, and subsequent thematic analysis, the findings show that all companies examined employ both formal and informal mechanisms for integrat- ing separated exploratory units with the operational structures. Further, the results reveal three prominent challenges impacting the success of these integrative efforts. | |
| dc.identifier.coursecode | TEKX08 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12380/308050 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | |
| dc.setspec.uppsok | Technology | |
| dc.subject | Innovation | |
| dc.subject | ambidexterity | |
| dc.subject | integration | |
| dc.subject | interface management | |
| dc.subject | balance | |
| dc.subject | exploration | |
| dc.subject | exploitation, | |
| dc.subject | cross-functional interface | |
| dc.title | Separated, yet integrated: exploring how ambidextrous firms manage integration of structurally separated units for exploration | |
| dc.type.degree | Examensarbete för masterexamen | sv |
| dc.type.degree | Master's Thesis | en |
| dc.type.uppsok | H | |
| local.programme | Management and economics of innovation (MPMEI), MSc |