Construct · 2 fields · 5 citations

Where does ambidexterity collide?

One name. Different field. Different construct. One map.

● jingle · one word, two constructs Nearest construct by meaningparadox mindsetcompare the meanings
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Every construct on the map is compared with every other by the meaning of its definitions, and the closest one is surfaced here. The nearest construct to ambidexterity is paradox mindset.

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ambidexterity2 CONSTRUCTSAmbidextrous firmMARCH · BOTH AT ONCETwo-handed skillOLDFIELD · NO STRONG HAND

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1971Two-handed skill1991Ambidextrous firm
2026

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Management & strategy

a firm's ability to pursue exploration and exploitation at the same time, refining current strengths while searching for new ones.

A firm's ability to pursue exploration and exploitation at the same time, so that it can refine what it already does well while also searching for what it does not yet do. March set up the tension in 1991: exploration means variation, search, and experiment, exploitation means efficiency, refinement, and execution, and the two compete for the same scarce resources. Tushman and O'Reilly's 1996 Ambidextrous organizations described firms that host both modes in separate units held together by a common architecture. Gibson and Birkinshaw's 2004 contextual ambidexterity located the same balance inside a single business unit, in a context that lets individuals divide their own effort between the two, and O'Reilly and Tushman's 2013 review treated it as a dynamic capability. The referent is an organization, the unit is its allocation of effort across two opposed activities, and the claim is about a firm's structure and strategy, not about anyone's body.[1][2][3][4]

Unit
A firm's capacity to explore and exploit at the same time
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
Survey ratings of a unit's balance between exploratory and exploitative activity, or of a context that supports both

Motor neuroscience

Equal skill in both hands

A person's roughly equal skill with both hands, the absence of a strong or consistent hand preference. Handedness is usually measured as a graded quantity rather than a two-way split: Oldfield's 1971 Edinburgh Handedness Inventory asks which hand a person uses for a set of everyday acts, from writing to striking a match, and returns a laterality quotient that runs from strongly left through mixed to strongly right. Ambidexterity in this meaning is the region near the middle of that scale, where neither hand dominates, and it is studied for what it says about how the two brain hemispheres share control of movement. The referent is one nervous system and its two hands, the unit is a degree of hand preference, and the word describes a fact about a body, with no bearing on strategy, resources, or the balance of two activities.[5]

Unit
A person's degree of hand preference, near the balanced middle of the scale
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
A laterality quotient from the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory; scores near zero mark the absence of a dominant hand

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Nearby collisions

dynamic capabilities5 fields · 9 citationsjingle · one name, five constructsabsorptive capacity6 fields · 10 citationsjingle · one name, six constructsinnovation6 fields · 11 citationsjingle · one name, six constructs

References

  1. March, J. G. (1991). Exploration and exploitation in organizational learning. Organization Science, 2(1), 71–87. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2.1.71
  2. Tushman, M. L., & O'Reilly, C. A. (1996). Ambidextrous organizations: Managing evolutionary and revolutionary change. California Management Review, 38(4), 8–30. https://doi.org/10.2307/41165852
  3. Gibson, C. B., & Birkinshaw, J. (2004). The antecedents, consequences, and mediating role of organizational ambidexterity. Academy of Management Journal, 47(2), 209–226. https://doi.org/10.5465/20159573
  4. O'Reilly, C. A., & Tushman, M. L. (2013). Organizational ambidexterity: Past, present, and future. Academy of Management Perspectives, 27(4), 324–338. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2013.0025
  5. Oldfield, R. C. (1971). The assessment and analysis of handedness: The Edinburgh inventory. Neuropsychologia, 9(1), 97–113. https://doi.org/10.1016/0028-3932(71)90067-4

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