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Dear all,

Please find below a call for papers for a track of the 2012 annual conference of the European Academy of Management (EURAM) on "Organizing ambidexterity across multiple levels of analysis: sensing and seizing opportunities for sustained performance ".  The deadline for the submission of the paper is January 17, 2012 (see also www.euram2012.nl). The conference will take place in Rotterdam, The Netherlands between June 6-8 2012.

We look forward to your submissions!

Best regards, also on behalf of the track coordinators,

Justin Jansen

Call for papers for EURAM Track

"Organizing ambidexterity across multiple levels of analysis: sensing and seizing opportunities for sustained performance "

Track Coordinators

Michiel Tempelaar (coordinator)

Justin Jansen

Tom Mom

Sebastian Fourne

Julian Birkinshaw

Abstract

In the modern competitive world, firms need to be able to exploit current competencies product-market combinations, as well as to explore new territories. Such ambidextrous organizations excel in pursuing exploratory and exploitative activities simultaneously and are able to recognize interdependencies, capture synergistic value, and realize sustainable performance over time. The phenomenon of organizational ambidexterity has received ample attention in the literature. Despite its growing popularity, however, important questions remain. More fundamentally, little is known about how exploitation and exploration can be facilitated, integrated and combined across different organizational levels.

This track focuses on multilevel perspectives on exploration, exploitation and ambidexterity. We encourage submissions that investigate how exploration, exploitation, their antecedents as well as performance consequences are interconnected at different levels of analysis. Appropriate research questions include, but are certainly not limited to:

•             How can firms drive performance through external, boundary spanning ambidextrous collaborations? 

•             Can and should structural and contextual ambidexterity co-exist within the same firm, and how do different hierarchical levels influence such structuring? 

•             What role does middle management play in combining top-down, bottom-up, and

horizontal initiatives that facilitate ambidexterity? 

•             How does managers' ambidexterity results in business-unit or firm-level ambidexterity and performance? 

•             What role do teams play in creating ambidexterity within firms? 

•             How is team-level ambidexterity jointly influenced by higher-level mechanisms and individual-level characteristics? 

•             What drives an individual's orientation towards exploration and exploitation? Are individuals able to evenly focus on exploitation and exploration? 

•             How may the different levels of analysis (individual-, team-, unit-, firm-level) conjointly help create ambidexterity within firms? 

•             How do ambidextrous activities at multiple levels contribute to performance over time?