Individual ambidexterity is of crucial importance for organisations, especially SMEs, to respond quickly and effectively to market trends and maintain a competitive edge. However, in literature, a number of different terms and definitions have been used to refer to the concept of individual ambidexterity. In addition, the conceptualisation is often derived from organisational ambidexterity and does not capture how ambidexterity manifests itself at the individual level and how employees develop and manage ambidexterity at an individual level. To gain a deeper understanding of how ambidexterity is enacted at the individual level, this PhD project aims at establishing conceptual clarity as well as developing a measurement scale of individual ambidexterity, and exploring how cultural values affect the nomological network of individual ambidexterity. Thus, this dissertation aims to accomplish the following:
– To gain insight about how individuals perform explorative and exploitative tasks, either simultaneously or sequentially, while keeping a balance between the two types of tasks, or in a combined effort.
– To incorporate this interplay between exploration and exploitation into the measurement of individual ambidexterity by developing and validating a new scale.
– To gain knowledge of how individuals from different cultural backgrounds differ in their ambidextrous behaviours.