My research considers the impact of the top management team (TMT) in shaping learning outcomes within an organization. I focus on how exploitative and exploratory learning processes need to be balanced within the organization in order to increase innovation, productivity and firm performance. A substantial body of work has examined ways to accomplish this. Since exploration and exploitation require different resources, structures and processes, several approaches have been suggested for balancing exploration and exploitation. I focus on the ambidexterity approach (simultaneous engagement in exploration and exploitation) and suggest that realistically, firms could balance these learning processes using different ambidexterity configurations (symmetrical and asymmetrical). Further, I explain why it is important to study the role of strategic leadership (TMT) in determining various ambidexterity configurations. I also explore several contingency factors (environmental, firm-level) that influence the relation between the different ambidexterity configurations and firm performance.
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