IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eurman/v39y2021i2p214-225.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Managing skunkworks to achieve ambidexterity: The Robinson Crusoe effect

Author

Listed:
  • Donada, Carole
  • Mothe, Caroline
  • Alegre, Joaquín

Abstract

Literature on ambidexterity emphasizes the need for both exploration and exploitation. Large firms usually choose to implement structural ambidexterity to separate both activities. We here focus on an extreme case of such structural partitioning implemented as a secret skunkworks project in a large French automotive company. A qualitative survey using both primary and secondary data shows that the major basic and initial characteristics of a skunkworks (i.e. secrecy, urgency, and autonomy) created favorable conditions for the technological exploration. However, exploitation failed due to precisely those same characteristics coupled with the fact that the project did not respond to a specific market demand: The skunkworks suffered from what we call the "Robinson Crusoe effect." We therefore contribute to the literature on skunkworks, which have remained understudied in the academic literature, as well as on ambidexterity, by showing how the interrelation between different factors is crucial for structural ambidexterity to be successful

Suggested Citation

  • Donada, Carole & Mothe, Caroline & Alegre, Joaquín, 2021. "Managing skunkworks to achieve ambidexterity: The Robinson Crusoe effect," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 214-225.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eurman:v:39:y:2021:i:2:p:214-225
    DOI: 10.1016/j.emj.2020.07.008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0263237320301171
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.emj.2020.07.008?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Justin J. P. Jansen & Frans A. J. Van Den Bosch & Henk W. Volberda, 2006. "Exploratory Innovation, Exploitative Innovation, and Performance: Effects of Organizational Antecedents and Environmental Moderators," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(11), pages 1661-1674, November.
    2. Chang, Yi-Ying & Hughes, Mathew, 2012. "Drivers of innovation ambidexterity in small- to medium-sized firms," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 1-17.
    3. Paola Criscuolo & Ammon Salter & Anne L. J. Ter Wal, 2014. "Going Underground: Bootlegging and Individual Innovative Performance," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(5), pages 1287-1305, October.
    4. Hill, Susan A. & Birkinshaw, Julian, 2008. "Strategy-organization configurations in corporate venture units: Impact on performance and survival," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 423-444, July.
    5. Michael Lubatkin & Zeki Simsek & Yan Ling & John F. Veiga, 2006. "Ambidexterity and Performance in Small-to Medium-Sized Firms : The Pivotal Role of Top Management Team Behavioral Integration," Post-Print hal-02311781, HAL.
    6. Fosfuri, Andrea & Rønde, Thomas, 2009. "Leveraging resistance to change and the skunk works model of innovation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 274-289, October.
    7. Kelley, Donna J. & Peters, Lois & O'Connor, Gina Colarelli, 2009. "Intra-organizational networking for innovation-based corporate entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 221-235, May.
    8. James G. March, 1991. "Exploration and Exploitation in Organizational Learning," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(1), pages 71-87, February.
    9. Arundel, Anthony, 2001. "The relative effectiveness of patents and secrecy for appropriation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 611-624, April.
    10. Douglas P. Hannah & Kathleen M. Eisenhardt, 2018. "How firms navigate cooperation and competition in nascent ecosystems," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(12), pages 3163-3192, December.
    11. Uriel Stettner & Dovev Lavie, 2014. "Ambidexterity under scrutiny: Exploration and exploitation via internal organization, alliances, and acquisitions," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(13), pages 1903-1929, December.
    12. Caroline Rodrigues Vaz & Tania Regina Shoeninger Rauen & Álvaro Guillermo Rojas Lezana, 2017. "Sustainability and Innovation in the Automotive Sector: A Structured Content Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-23, May.
    13. Fariborz Damanpour, 1996. "Organizational Complexity and Innovation: Developing and Testing Multiple Contingency Models," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(5), pages 693-716, May.
    14. Laursen, Keld & Salter, Ammon J., 2014. "The paradox of openness: Appropriability, external search and collaboration," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(5), pages 867-878.
    15. Andrea Fosfuri & Thomas Rønde, 2009. "Leveraging Resistance to Change and the Skunk Works Model of Innovation," Post-Print hal-00699208, HAL.
    16. Schnellbächer, Benedikt & Heidenreich, Sven & Wald, Andreas, 2019. "Antecedents and effects of individual ambidexterity – A cross-level investigation of exploration and exploitation activities at the employee level," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 442-454.
    17. Bonesso, Sara & Gerli, Fabrizio & Scapolan, Annachiara, 2014. "The individual side of ambidexterity: Do individuals’ perceptions match actual behaviors in reconciling the exploration and exploitation trade-off?," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 392-405.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Niemann, Christoph Constantin & Mai, Robert & Dickel, Petra, 2022. "Nurture or nature? How organizational and individual factors drive corporate entrepreneurial projects," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 155-169.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Úbeda-García, Mercedes & Claver-Cortés, Enrique & Marco-Lajara, Bartolomé & Zaragoza-Sáez, Patrocinio, 2020. "Toward a dynamic construction of organizational ambidexterity: Exploring the synergies between structural differentiation, organizational context, and interorganizational relations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 363-372.
    2. González-Ramos, M. Isabel & Guadamillas, Fátima & Donate, Mario J., 2023. "The relationship between knowledge management strategies and corporate social responsibility: Effects on innovation capabilities," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    3. José Andrade & Mário Franco & Luis Mendes, 2023. "Facilitating and Inhibiting Effects of Organisational Ambidexterity in SME: an Analysis Centred on SME Characteristics," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 14(1), pages 35-64, March.
    4. Hughes, Paul & Hughes, Matthew & Stokes, Peter & Lee, Hanna & Rodgers, Peter & Degbey, William Y., 2020. "Micro-foundations of organizational ambidexterity in the context of cross-border mergers and acquisitions," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    5. Martin Owusu Ansah & Nicholas Addai-Boamah & Abeeku Bylon Bamfo & Lucy Afeafa Ry-Kottoh, 2022. "Organizational ambidexterity and financial performance in the banking industry: evidence from a developing economy," Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 27(3), pages 250-263, September.
    6. Carolina Rojas-Córdova & Amanda J. Williamson & Julio A. Pertuze & Gustavo Calvo, 2023. "Why one strategy does not fit all: a systematic review on exploration–exploitation in different organizational archetypes," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 17(7), pages 2251-2295, October.
    7. Mammassis, Constantinos S. & Kostopoulos, Konstantinos C., 2019. "CEO goal orientations, environmental dynamism and organizational ambidexterity: An investigation in SMEs," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 577-588.
    8. Jan Ossenbrink & Joern Hoppmann & Volker H. Hoffmann, 2019. "Hybrid Ambidexterity: How the Environment Shapes Incumbents’ Use of Structural and Contextual Approaches," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(6), pages 1319-1348, November.
    9. Danny Soetanto & Sarah L. Jack, 2018. "Slack resources, exploratory and exploitative innovation and the performance of small technology-based firms at incubators," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 43(5), pages 1213-1231, October.
    10. Barba-Aragón, María Isabel & Jiménez-Jiménez, Daniel, 2020. "HRM and radical innovation: A dual approach with exploration as a mediator," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 791-803.
    11. Jan Ossenbrink & Joern Hoppmann, 2019. "Polytope Conditioning and Linear Convergence of the Frank–Wolfe Algorithm," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 44(1), pages 1319-1348, February.
    12. Angeloantonio Russo & Rosamartina Schena, 2021. "Ambidexterity in the context of SME alliances: Does sustainability have a role?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(2), pages 606-615, March.
    13. Yasser Alizadeh & Antonie J. Jetter, 2019. "Pathways for Balancing Exploration and Exploitation in Innovations: A Review and Expansion of Ambidexterity Theory," International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 16(05), pages 1-33, August.
    14. Mavroudi, Eva & Kesidou, Effie & Pandza, Krsto, 2023. "Effects of ambidextrous and specialized R&D strategies on firm performance: The contingent role of industry orientation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    15. Sarooghi, Hessamoddin & Libaers, Dirk & Burkemper, Andrew, 2015. "Examining the relationship between creativity and innovation: A meta-analysis of organizational, cultural, and environmental factors," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 714-731.
    16. Katou, Anastasia A. & Budhwar, Pawan S. & Patel, Charmi, 2021. "A trilogy of organizational ambidexterity: Leader’s social intelligence, employee work engagement and environmental changes," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 688-700.
    17. Jing A. Zhang & Xiling Cui, 2017. "In Search Of The Effects Of Business And Political Ties On Innovation Ambidexterity," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(02), pages 1-27, February.
    18. Marina Estrada-Cruz & Noelia Rodriguez-Hernández & Antonio J. Verdú-Jover & Jose Maria Gómez-Gras, 2022. "The effect of competitive intensity on the relationship between strategic entrepreneurship and organizational results," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 1-24, March.
    19. Roth, Linus & Corsi, Simone, 2023. "Ambidexterity in a geographic context: A systematic literature review on international exploration and exploitation of knowledge," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    20. Osiyevskyy, Oleksiy & Shirokova, Galina & Ritala, Paavo, 2020. "Exploration and exploitation in crisis environment: Implications for level and variability of firm performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 227-239.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:eurman:v:39:y:2021:i:2:p:214-225. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/115/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.