Information Technology and the Ambidexterity Hypotheses : An Analysis in Product Development

We investigated ambidexterity, defined as the capacity to simultaneously achieve exploration and exploitation activities at a product development level. Building on the knowledge management literature, we argue that information technology - defined by a combination of the convergent and divergent dimension - facilitate ambidexterity. Further, ambidexterity mediates the relationship between IT and performance. We found strong evidence that ambidexterity mediates the relationship between the IT that encourage these activities and subsequent performance in product development. Data collected from 80 product developments supported our hypotheses