The Evolution of Organisational Ambidexterity Research : A Multi-Era Bibliometric Analysis

Research on organisational ambidexterity (OA); the simultaneous pursuit of explorative and exploitative innovation, has been reviewed in the past. Yet, we lack knowledge of the changes in OA research over time, which could help us understand how today’s OA research has been shaped and can be taken further. Accordingly, this study employs a bibliometric analysis to evaluate the evolution of the OA research field across four eras from 1996-2009, 2010-2013, 2014-17, and 2018-2021. We identify the key clusters of OA research in each era, point to key theoretical and methodological influences associated with each cluster, and describe how they have changed and influenced OA evolution. We observe how a distinct resource-based view (RBV) influence in OA has led to the relocation of agency from firms to individuals, and we generate insights that challenge previous observations that cross-sectional designs are to be blamed for the dilution of the ambidexterity hypothesis