Juggling Markets and Products: How Does Ambidexterity Impact Export Performance?

Despite its practical relevance for internationalizing firms, organizational ambidexterity has received limited attention in international marketing research. Existing literature largely focuses on ambidexterity within a single functional domain and reports inconsistent evidence regarding its performance outcomes. The authors of this article advance knowledge by capturing contingent performance effects of exporting firms’ ambidexterity in both market and product development domains. The authors test sequential forms of ambidexterity and their effects on performance using firms’ self-reported ambidexterity measures and lagged, objective performance data. The findings reveal that market ambidexterity enhances product development ambidexterity, which subsequently contributes to return on sales (ROS) but not to sales growth. Interestingly, market ambidexterity has a direct negative effect on ROS but a positive indirect influence through product ambidexterity, indicating a suppression effect. Knowledge leverage capability strengthens the relationship between market and product ambidexterity. Additionally, the performance impact of product ambidexterity is contingent: Perceived market opportunity prevents it from eroding sales growth, while the degree of internationalization amplifies its contribution to ROS. These findings underscore the complex, domain-specific, and conditional nature of ambidexterity's performance implications in export settings.