Research

Ambidexterity no easy balancing act for R&D firms: SFU Beedie study

Jul 11, 2011

Can ambidexterity, a trait that’s often associated with exceptional athletes, be applied to organizations -- from biotech companies to government agencies -- immersed in research and development? It’s a question recently put forth by researchers Ian McCarthy and Brian Gordon from the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University. Their article, entitled “Achieving contextual ambidexterity in R&D organizations: a management control system approach,” was published in the journal R&D Management. It points out that these organizations tend to find themselves juggling two contradictory modes of learning: ‘exploration’, a long-term activity involving risk and experimentation, and ‘exploitation’, characterized by short-term time horizons and a focus on refinement and efficiency.

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