Achieving technological sovereignty through unrelated diversification of state corporations: The case of Rosatom

As companies evolve, they face the need to continuously search for new resources to create innovation — the basis for long-term competitiveness. Potential opportunities tend to lie in areas that are difficult to navigate, with high levels of ambiguity and risk. Navigating through them requires a complex cognitive quest — establishing organizational ambidexterity, which means combining two strategic actions that are difficult to combine. In addition to ensuring sustained efficiency in current operational processes, there is a need for constant exploration of valuable assets in unfamiliar dimensions. This becomes particularly relevant in a changing geopolitical context in which countries are faced with the “closure” or transformation of established resource spaces. Technological selfsufficiency acquires the status of a key priority in national strategies. The article explores the topic of building up in-country technological potential for gaining the corresponding self-sufficiency, reveals the picture of emerging cooperative configurations. It analyzes the essence of the most suitable for these purposes business model — unrelated diversification and its key tool — organizational ambidexterity. A review of initiatives of different countries and companies using these mechanisms in an effort to achieve technological leadership in the new environment is given. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the achievements of the Russian state corporation “Rosatom” in the implementation of the unrelated diversification model from the point of view of its contribution to increasing the technological sovereignty of the country.