University ambidexterity: assessing the nature of interdependence between knowledge exchange and knowledge creation in UK universities

Abstract The concept of university ambidexterity has been advanced to capture the simultaneous pursuit of exploration (research) and exploitation (knowledge exchange). While ambidexterity can enhance organisational performance, tensions and barriers have been identified suggesting it is far from straightforward to achieve. In light of this, it has been proposed that universities follow a ‘twisting learning path’ that alternates between exploration and exploitation. However, this violates the idea that innovation activities are persistent in nature. In order to assess the nature of the ambidexterity of UK universities, we use data from the UK Higher Education Business & Community Interaction survey to examine the temporal dynamics of the relationship between research and KE. Through estimating a suite of Panel Variance Auto Regressive models, our results suggest that university ambidexterity has three key characteristics: (1) a determinant temporal ‘path dependent’ effect, whereby research and KE activities exhibit a significant autoregressive component; (2) an inter-temporal bi-directional relationship between research and KE activities; and (3) short time lags between the implementation of research and KE coupled with the dissipation of the relationship over time that is indicative of a persistent relationship between the two. Consequently, we propose an alternative model of university ambidexterity by highlighting the continuous interdependency of research and knowledge exchange within UK universities and its persistent nature.