Investigating how business process ambidexterity facilitates business-IT alignment in public sector organizations

In today’s world of digital transformation and global hyper-competition the need for organizations to manage and innovate their Business Processes in both incremental and disruptive ways is greater than ever, both for private and public organizations. The nascent concept of Business Process Ambidexterity (balancing process exploitation and exploration) has been receiving a growing interest in the academia, and my research aims to address three research gaps: (1) the conceptualization of Business Process Ambidexterity and guidance on its implementation; (2) its impact on business-IT alignment, and (3) the specific contingency factors of Business Process Ambidexterity in the public sector. I will address these gaps through a research plan, covering a large-scale survey, extreme case research, Delphi study and design science research. At this stage I have completed a Systematic Literature Review of Business Process Ambidexterity, and I am preparing the next steps of my research

The impact of information technology resources on SMEs' innovation performance

This work aims to develop a research framework to examine the impact of information technology resources on the innovation performance of Saudi small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs). SMEs innovation capability influences growth and technological progress (Bruque & Moyano, 2007). However, many developing countries exhibit moderate or even low innovation performance. For instance, Saudi Arabia is ranked 54th by the Global Innovation Index (GII 2011). Innovation systems studies focus on the alignment between the interactions of innovation actors with their constantly changing environment toward better innovation performance (Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff, 2000). The dynamic capabilities of organisations have been highlighted as a crucial characteristic that helps to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage (Teece et al., 1997). The indirect impact IT resources on innovation performance represents an attractive research area (Benitez-Amado et al., 2010). Therefore, we argue that a closer look at Saudi SMEs information technology resources and their impact on the firm dynamic capabilities and innovation performance would make a significant contribution to existing knowledge. Areas such as the organisation strategies of developing countries, innovation management, dynamic capabilities, open innovation and strategic information systems are few examples of areas that might benefit from this work

Carving out new business models in a small company through contextual ambidexterity: the case of a sustainable company

Business model innovation (BMI) and organizational ambidexterity have been pointed out as mechanisms for companies achieving sustainability. However, especially considering small and medium enterprises (SMEs), there is a lack of studies demonstrating how to combine these mechanisms. Tackling such a gap, this study seeks to understand how SMEs can ambidextrously manage BMI. Our aim is to provide a practical artifact, accessible to SMEs, to operationalize BMI through organizational ambidexterity. To this end, we conducted our study under the design science research to, first, build an artifact for operationalizing contextual ambidexterity for business model innovation. Then, we used an in-depth case study with a vegan fashion small e-commerce to evaluate the practical outcomes of the artifact. Our findings show that the company improves its business model while, at the same time, designs a new business model and monetizes it. Thus, our approach was able to take the first steps in the direction of operationalizing contextual ambidexterity for business model innovation in small and medium enterprises, democratizing the concept. We contribute to theory by connecting different literature strands and to practice by creating an artifact to assist managemen

Ambidexterity in Information Systems Research: Overview of Conceptualizations, Antecedents, and Outcomes

Organizations that are not efficient and innovative today quickly become irrelevant tomorrow. Ambidexterity (i.e., simultaneously conducting two seemingly contradicting activities, such as exploitation and exploration) helps organizations to overcome this challenge and, hence, has become increasingly popular with manifold applications in information systems (IS) research. However, we lack a systematic understanding of ambidexterity research, its research streams, and their future trajectory. Hence, we conduct a systematic literature review on ambidexterity in IS research and identify six distinct research streams that use an ambidexterity lens: IT-enabled organizational ambidexterity, ambidextrous IT capability, ambidexterity in IS development, ambidextrous IS strategy, ambidextrous inter-organizational relationships, and organizational ambidexterity in IS. We present the current state of research in each stream. More so, we comprehensively overview application areas, conceptualizations, antecedents for, and outcomes of ambidexterity. Hence, this study contributes to the emergent theme of ambidexterity in IS research

Structural Ambidexterity through Bimodal IT – A Literature Review and Research Agenda

Bimodality of the information technology (IT) function is one answer to the changed expectations towards and perceptions of IT’s role within an organization. Bimodal IT aims at leveraging ambidextrous capabilities, allowing to engage in explorative and exploitative activities at the same time. Research interest of this phenomenon is growing, but there is a lack of cumulative knowledge on bimodal IT including research on the related concepts of structural ambidexterity and IT ambidexterity. Through a systematic literature review of 42 papers published in a wide range of academic outlets, we identify and describe four research themes which are summarized in a conceptual model of forms of bimodal IT, antecedents, facilitators and barriers, and outcomes. Furthermore, we discuss the critique the phenomenon is facing in practice and propose a research agenda. The study contributes to both research and practice by synthesizing existing knowledge and providing guidance for further research

Is Business Process Management (BPM) ready for ambidexterity? Conceptualization, implementation guidelines and research agenda

Business Process Management ambidexterity is a nascent concept providing a philosophy and framework for organizations to radically innovate their business processes, while maintaining their capabilities in process efficiency and operational excellence. Considering the novelty of this topic, there is not yet an agreed conceptualization of the term, nor a consolidated view on related implementation guidelines. We aim to address this research gap through a Systematic Literature Review, where we provide a dual conceptualization that focuses on (1) the equilibrium balance between explorative and exploitative processes, as well as (2) the organizational capability to support exploration and exploitation. Based on this conceptualization, we provide consolidated guidelines for practitioners, including decision steps, followed by a research agenda in order to let this promising domain further advance

Business process management and digital innovations : a systematic literature review

Emerging technologies have capabilities to reshape business process management (BPM) from its traditional version to a more explorative variant. However, to exploit the full benefits of new IT, it is essential to reveal BPM’s research potential and to detect recent trends in practice. Therefore, this work presents a systematic literature review (SLR) with 231 recent academic articles (from 2014 until May 2019) that integrate BPM with digital innovations (DI). We position those articles against seven future BPM-DI trends that were inductively derived from an expert panel. By complementing the expected trends in practice with a state-of-the-art literature review, we are able to derive covered and uncovered themes in order to help bridge a rigor-relevance gap. The major technological impacts within the BPM field seem to focus on value creation, customer engagement and managing human-centric and knowledge-intensive business processes. Finally, our findings are categorized into specific calls for research and for action to let scholars and organizations better prepare for future digital needs

The Evaluation of Leadership Coaching Through a Lens of Ambidexterity

Leadership coaching has grown to become a significant intervention to respond to the management needs of an increasingly complex organisational environment. The substantial investment in leadership coaching corresponds with current accountability trends, raising the profile of evaluation; however, evidence shows that organisations treat evaluation in this context as being of low strategic value, characterised as limited and problematic, both operationally and strategically. Specifically, whereas evaluation has primarily focused on current organisational imperatives and financial targets, there is also evidence of the increasing emphasis on a new set of leadership behaviours to achieve competitiveness through adaptive capacities characterised by complex decision-making which balances short term outcomes in known circumstances with longer term capacity building in unknown contexts. In response, this study adopts ambidexterity (the adaptive capacity to balance shortterm-known and long-term-unknown demands) as a conceptual lens to examine the evaluation of leadership coaching and used in depth semi-structured interviews with 12 senior practitioners engaged in this area. The study found multiple incongruences between espoused strategic priorities and evaluation practice in-use, and identified apparent moderators that influence evaluation practice in-use. As such, an exploration of moderators contributed fresh insights into barriers and enablers, including six new dimensions for evaluation problematics, and seven promising movements with implications for practice. More generally, this study also asserts that the lens of ambidexterity presents new opportunities for an expansive exploration of evaluation in terms of a wider strategic contribution and, accordingly, suggests the dimensions of an ambidextrous framework, simultaneously pursuing a workable system that is also strategically helpful

Organizational ambidexterity: a critical review and development of a project focused definition

The objective of this paper is to explore a project-focused understanding of contemporary organizational ambidexterity literature. As part of this process, a taxonomical analysis of the elements and components of the concept of organizational ambidexterity is undertaken. Findings suggest that a project-focused notion of organizational ambidexterity involves different levels, dimensions, and mechanisms. The predominant contribution of this study resides within the taxonomy study, which provides a platform for a more holistic understanding of organizational ambidexterity as a multifaceted concept applicable to the project management discipline

Practical Implications of the Ambidexterity Concepts

Scientific publications treating the topic of ambidexterity have experienced a great increase in number since the last twenty years. However, the implications for managers to achieve ambidexterity in practice remain a largely neglected field of research. This thesis aims at bridging the rigor-relevance gap regarding the concept of ambidexterity by systematically reviewing findings from academic and practitioner literature in order to provide practical implications for managers to reconcile exploration and exploitation and to, thus, achieve ambidexterity in practice.Keywords: Ambidexterity, Practical implications, Exploitation, Rigor-relevance ga