Organizational Ambidexterity and Innovation: A Theoretical Approach

The article studies the conception of organizational ambidexterity as one of the key factors in ensuring the competitiveness and sustainability of modern enterprises. The purpose of the study is to analyze approaches to understanding organizational ambidexterity and determine ways to find a balance between the implementation of research activities (development of breakthrough innovations) and exploitation (development of improving innovations) at domestic enterprises. The main approaches to understanding ambidexterity, including the balance between research and operational activities of companies, are considered. The theoretical foundations of organizational ambidexterity are analyzed, starting with the fundamental research of J. March and M. Tushman, which define the dichotomy between exploration and exploitation as the main mechanism of strategic development of organizations. Special attention is paid to the practical implementation of organizational ambidexterity in the modern business environment. The main approaches to its implementation are allocated: consistent, structural, contextual, and interorganizational. The advantages and disadvantages of each of the approaches, as well as their impact on the effectiveness of management decisions in companies of different sizes and industry specificity, are presented. With use of the bibliometric analysis of scientific publications in the Scopus database, the dynamics of research on the topic of organizational ambidexterity and innovation has been surveyed. The key areas of scientific research in this area, as well as the areas in which the conception of organizational ambidexterity is most widely used, have been identified. Separately, the issue of introducing ambidexterity in the conditions of Ukrainian enterprises, in particular in the sphere of the military-industrial complex, is studied. The possibilities of adapting international experience to the realities of the Ukrainian business environment and approaches to the optimal combination of research and operational activities are considered. The article contains conclusions on the strategic importance of organizational ambidexterity for companies seeking to adapt to a dynamic market environment, as well as recommendations for its efficient implementation in management practice.