Dear Mladenka, 

Contact these guys: 

THE IMPACT OF AMBIDEXTROUS ALLIANCES ON INNOVATION

Liliana Doganova*, Massimo Colombo**, Evila Piva**, Diego D’Adda**, Philippe Mustar*

email:      or  

Many, many thanks Béatrice Marianne, you helped me a lot!

Dear Mladenka,

here you have a link for downloading the doctoral tesis of one of my colleagues who study a multipartner alliance from the dynamic capabilities perspective  http://goo.gl/XzBKcH

One of the most relevan papers she cited was the one by Tiwana

Tiwana, A. (2008). Do bridging ties complement strong ties? an empirical examination of

alliance ambidexterity. Strategic Management Journal, 29(3), 251-272

Dear Victor,

I deeply THANK YOU for all you valuable advices. I really, really appreciate all of them..

Mladenka - the earlier responses looked useful from a construct/content perspective.  But they hadn't yet answered your question about measurement.  Metrology and psychometrics deal with effectiveness of measurement, and good overview about applying Rasch Measurement (an engineering-worthy form of psychometrics) can be found In "Applying the Rasch Model: Fundamental Measurement in the Human Sciences", by Trevor G. Bond & Christine M. Fox, 2001. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc. 0-8058-3476-1.

You also asked about efficiency, which is more about the cost-effectiveness and speed, which ultimately is an operations research question - but for experts about alliances whom you wish to include in your measurement could include Computer-Adaptive Tests http://websupport1.citytech.cuny.edu/faculty/acalderon/Computer-Adaptive_Testing.pdf

We do this through Linacre's Facets method, combined with his Anchored Maximum Likelihood Method.http://www.rasch.org/rmt/rmt122q.htm

:)

Dear Mladenka,

I am not familiar with the concept of ambidexterity at the alliance level. However, I just read about it, and it is very similar to the concept of coopetition on which I just finished writing my thesis, that is; cooperative and competitive activities taking place simultaneously between competitors in the hope of mutually beneficial results.

From my experience, it is usually very hard to access primary data, due to the strategic nature of such information, and conducting surveys doesn't necessarily bring substantial value to the research, consequently, I realized that authors cited in my literature review used to collect secondary data through specialized media. Indeed, they conducted press reviews, and then applied a method to select and categorize the different types of relationships binding competing firms.

Let's say, you start by delimiting the number of types of alliances, to do this, you could use a typology developed in the literature.

Then you launch a research on a selected source of info with a certain number of keywords.

Subsequently,you conduct a content analysis to bring out the facts relating to your subject.

Finally you 'rank' these relationships according to the typology, or, for instance; by estimating the strength of relationships based on the frequency of the interactions. Another way of estimating the effectiveness of such alliances, would be to find a quantitative correlation between, let's say the number of alliances, and business success, in terms of market share or another metric. I think It is an efficient way to determine the level and effectiveness of inter-firm interactions.

Maybe I'm completely off-topic and didn't help at all :D but you can come back to me if you need further details.

Look at Stettner, Levi, 2014, SMJ. Very relevant on the topic!

Hi Mladenka,

you might want to look at my 2007 SMJ paper on "Network structure and innovation", where I found that the innovation capability of leading firms in alliance networks is enhanced by a 'dual' network structure, i.e., a network architecture composed of both strong and weak ties. This, in some sense, is ambidexterity at the alliance network level.

Hope this helps.

Dear all,

thank you for all your kind help. I will get back to all your answers during the weekend. Your answers are really helpful. It means a lot to me to have encouragement from all of you..

Thank you, thank you....

See this paper: Structural Differentiation and Ambidexterity: The Mediating Role of Integration Mechanisms. Proffesor Van del Bosh.

Wow, there are many different ways of how to measure ambidexterity. Some of them are highly innovation oriented. Depends on your research focus. What kind of ambidexterity (innovation - strategic orientation, etc.) , what extent of ambidexerity (Combined Magnitude or Balanced), etc. But I am happy to provide more information on that by email, if needed. 

All the best

Dear Manile,

Thank you for all your thoughts and advices. To the best of my knowledge there is scarce research on linking the concept of coopetition with ambidexterity ones.  As the concept of ambidexterity is conceptualized in different ways – as a process, outcome or intention – in different contexts I am still questioning myself in which directions I need to put my attention and how to operationalize it.

I share you concerns related to accessing primary data – moreover this is my biggest concern. I am tried to blend primary and secondary data. I think that redirecting my attention to secondary ones would be worthwhile. I really appreciate the effort you put to explains to me – step by step… J  Moreover, all the advices are the best that happens to me recently… J because unfortunately I don’t have a chance to share my concern with so “ knowledge-sharing” researchers.  Thank you Manile!

Dear Valentina,

Many thanks!  :)

Dear Antonio,

You research is really fascinating. Usually when I see how knowledgeable you are --I feel enthusiastic – because this is how the research should be done! But at same time – I am aware of my restrictions – my knowledge L…  I will definitely include your work in my PhD. Thank you once more.

Dear Andres,

Thank you for recommendation.

Dear Emanuel,

THANK you. In this stage of my research I am still dealing with these issues. The argument – whether to conceptualize ambidexterity as an optimal point or combined is still bothers me. Both arguments are quite challenging – but I thing I would lean on combined perspective. I wold be more than happy if I could share my thoughts via e-mail!  J

Dear all,

Thank you all for being soooo knowledge- sharing! This kind of help I never expected. You all helped me a lot. :)

Dear Mladenka, 

I can totally understand your situation, because it somehow represents my situation as well. The literature of ambidexterity is widespread, somehow tearing the initial idea apart and adapting various contexts. 

Simply put, March (1991) viewed exploration and exploitation as two opposite ends on one a line, where Ambidexterity equals the exact middlepoint. Due to the increase of research, scholars (Gupta, 2006) have begun to characterize exploration and exploitation rather as being orthogonal. In this way companies might increase their level of exploration or exploitation without the need for asking what is more appropriate than the other. 

Ambidexterity also was operationalized in various ways, resulting in a lack of consistency. Nevertheless, since Cao et al. (2009) began to adapt the idea of complementarity to ambidexterity, assuming they reinforce each other, so that the final outcome is characterized by complementary effects. 

Personally put, the ambidexterity literature starts to spread and calls for more empirical research. I hope this helped. 

You are more than welcome to contact me, and we can keep in touch. I am currently also reviewing ltierature in this field and I am analysing some data in this regard. 

All the best, 

Emanuel Helmwart Kofler Can you please explain to me how I can measure organizational ambidexterity using archival data? And what references to use?