Trade-off or complement? Choices along ambidextrous paths from resource allocation through performance

Abstract

為因應變動的產業環境，經理人必須先進行主觀的目標選擇，再以此為基準，分配其有限資源，藉以建構及累積其探索與開發之能量，從而得以達成其長短期績效目標。本研究蒐集Compustat北美資料庫中電腦相關服務業之資料，進行檢定之結果支持資源配置透過探索與開發能力影響績效之假說。本研究實驗結果亦顯示，探索能力與開發能力對資源配置轉換長期與短期績效之過程，同時存在抵換效果與互補效果，雙元能力即為經理人之管理的一個循環的動態過程，以重構探索—開發混合能力的為核心，在長、短期績效目標及資源配置間不斷的重複進行決策。

To adapt to the changing business environment, an incumbent manager must start by determining business objectives, based on which limited resources are allocated, and then follow up with actions that not only build but also serve to accumulate an effective and flexible capacity for ambidexterity, such that the firm’s targets for short-term performance and long-term value can be reached. Drawing on data from the computer-based services industry in North America, this empirical study provides support for a causal pathway from resource deployment through exploration/exploitation configuration to performance. It also shows the coexistence of trade-offs and complementary mediating effects of exploration and exploitation between resource allocation and short- and long-term performance. To minimize the cost of trade-off effects between exploitation and exploration and, at the same time, maximize the benefits of complementary effects, ambidextrous strategic management involves an iterative process of dynamic capability which, with reconfiguration of exploration and exploitation as the central focal point, calls for the making and re-making of strategic choices between short-term and long-term goals and a complementary reallocation of resources.