Citation: Zu, J.; Wang, J.; Ma, J.
Ambidexterity in a Rapidly Changing
Environment of China: Top
Management Team Decision Making
and Sustained Performance.
Sustainability 2022, 14, 3894.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su14073894
Academic Editors: João Carlos de
Oliveira Matias, Paolo Renna and
António Abreu
Received: 11 December 2021
Accepted: 14 February 2022
Published: 25 March 2022
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Article
Ambidexterity in a Rapidly Changing Environment of China:
Top Management Team Decision Making and
Sustained Performance
Jiewei Zu
1,2
, Jianan Wang
3,
* and Jun Ma
4
1
Nottingham University Business School, Nottingham NG8 1BB, UK; alyjz23@nottingham.ac.uk
2
Institute of Intellectual Property, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230094, China
3
Research Center for Science and Technology Innovation and Regional Development, University of Science
and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
4
The College of Humanities, Shandong Management University, Jinan 250357, China;
mary3180robert@163.com
* Correspondence: wjn@mail.ustc.edu.cn
Abstract:
The market requires Internet companies to achieve unit ambidexterity to adapt to a rapidly
changing market environment. Studies have discussed the background, behavior, and performance
of corporate ambidexterity but have not focused on formulating ambidextrous decisions by the top
management team. We implemented inductive multiple case studies by utilizing five Chinese Internet
companies as subjects. Results show that if the senior managers consider the contingency between
business and environment from the perspective of the entire industry to achieve goals, resource
allocation, and co-evolution, and effectively coordinate the internal conflict of the decision-making
process, then the company could attain sustained performance. The newly constructed theoretical
framework emphasizes the role of contingency and strategy behavior, rather than deterministically
interpreting the outcome based on the personal judgment of senior managers and the embeddedness
of units.
Keywords:
ambidexterity; top management team; decision making; Internet companies;
sustained performance
1. Introduction
Organizations evolve through incremental or evolutionary change punctuated by
discontinuous or revolutionary change. They must, in other words, create an ambidextrous
organization—one capable of simultaneously pursuing both incremental and discontinuous
innovation. From the ambidextrous perspective of enterprise sustainable development
strategies, enterprises need to constantly adapt to the external rapidly changing environ-
ment in order to meet future needs. In contrast, they simultaneously need to continue
their existing business to ensure stable income [
1
]. Although both of these activities are
necessary to the enterprise’s short-term survival and long-term development, they follow
different logic models, with contradictory statuses [
2
]. March initially proposed the concept
of “exploitation of old certainties” and “exploration of new possibilities” in his research in
1991. Exploitation focuses on using existing knowledge to improve organization operations
steadily and efficiently, while exploration includes the development of new business, tech-
nology, and innovative activities [
2
]. With the advancement in exploring the relationship
of exploration and exploitation, many new relative research topics, such as organizational
learning, technological innovation, organizational adaptation, strategic management, and
organizational design, have emerged [3].
Duncan (1976) initially proposed the idea of ambidexterity [
4
]. Following researchers
have argued about the differences in a firm’s ability to engage in ambidextrous innovation
Sustainability 2022, 14, 3894. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14073894 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability
