Dynamic Ambidexterity: Exploiting Exploration for Business Success in the Digital Age

For startup firms, innovation is their main modus operandi. At the organizational level, they are digital natives, birthed in the era of digital business models. Well-established, traditional businesses, however, face a unique set of challenges in introducing digital business models: how can they balance “keeping the lights on” with an existing non-digital business model while concurrently committing resources to develop an innovative digital business model? For those firms that successfully manage this tension, a subsequent challenge arises. Once the innovation proves successful, how can the firm then embed the new digital business model into their ongoing operations? This is especially difficult when the new business model might negatively impact, if not eradicate, the existing traditional business model.