Previous research focuses on firm and business unit level ambidexterity. Therefore, conceptual and empirically validated understanding about ambidexterity at the individual level of analysis is very scarce. This paper addresses this gap in the literature by investigating managers' ambidexterity, delivering three contributions to theory and empirical research on ambidexterity: first, by proposing three related characteristics of ambidextrous managers; second, by developing a model and associated hypotheses on both the direct and interaction effects of formal structural and personal coordination mechanisms on managers' ambidexterity; and third, by testing the hypotheses based on a sample of 716 business unit level and operational level managers.

Findings regarding the formal structural mechanisms indicate that a manager's decision-making authority positively relates to this manager's ambidexterity, whereas formalization of a manager's tasks has no significant relationship with this manager's ambidexterity. Regarding the personal coordination mechanisms, findings indicate that both the participation of a manager in cross-functional interfaces and the connectedness of a manager to other organization members positively relate to this manager's ambidexterity. Furthermore, results show positive interaction effects between the formal structural and personal coordination mechanisms on managers' ambidexterity. The paper's theoretical contributions and empirical results increase our understanding about managers' ambidexterity and about how different types and combinations of coordination mechanisms relate to variation in managers' ambidexterity.

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Understanding Variation in Managers' Ambidexterity: Investigating Direct and Interaction Effects of Formal Structural and Personal Coordination Mechanisms

Mastering Strategic Renewal: Mobilising Renewal Journeys in Multi-unit Firms

Although Internet banking is a growing phenomenon, the underlying factors driving and inhibiting its diffusion are not well understood. This paper presents empirical research that investigated the factors driving and inhibiting Internet banking. The main component of the research was a Delphi study of expert opinion. This paper gives a brief overview of the academic literature on the diffusion of innovation and Internet banking. The conduct and findings of the Delphi study are then reported. The paper concludes that Internet banking will become an extremely important distribution channel in the future, with the drivers overcoming the inhibitors in influencing the rate. Further to this, the paper indicates that the existing diffusion of innovation literature identifies some of the factors instrumental in the diffusion of Internet banking. However, this study identifies additional issues.

A Delphi Study of the Drivers and Inhibitors of Internet Banking

How do incumbent firms and environments co-evolve and how are firm-level adaptation and selection at industry level interrelated? Can and do large established organizations renew themselves to adapt to their environment? Three single-lens theories, relating to environmental selection, institutional theory, managerial intentionality, and a co-evolutionary perspective are used to investigate strategic renewal of incumbent firms. We derive propositions and distinguish between three dimensions of strategic renewal and develop metrics to investigate our propositions in a multi-level, multi-country, longitudinal study of the European financial services industry. Our results provide the following insights. From an environmental selection perspective, we found incumbents have a preference for exploitation renewal actions. Country institutional environments appear to explain to what extent incumbents prefer internal and/or external renewal actions. Managerial intentionality seems to explain outlier behaviour and firm-specific frequency and timing of renewal actions. From a co-evolutionary perspective, interaction effects explain deviations from predictions derived from the single-lens theories applied in this paper.

Co-evolution in Strategic Renewal Behaviour of British, Dutch and French Financial Incumbents: Interaction of Environmental Selection, Institutional Effects and Managerial Intentionality

Mastering Strategic Renewal

The European financial services sector is confronted with major forces that have changed its competitive dynamics and the strategic context. Firstly, we investigate the pace of the diffusion of two forces for strategic renewal (technological innovations and regulatory changes); secondly, we assess similarities in the pace of diffusion across countries; and thirdly, we assess the impact of these developments on the European financial landscape, focusing on five EU countries from 1990 to 1999. Preliminary findings suggest that country-specific patterns of diffusion have decreased substantially, indicating the emergence of industry-generic patterns of diffusion, while the speed of diffusion is increasing within the sector. This will give rise to a hyper-competitive landscape in the beginning of this century. Understanding the emergence of such landscapes creates important managerial challenges for the strategic renewal journeys of both incumbent firms and new entrants, in the financial services sector and in sectors confronted with similar developments

Mark P. Krieger

Papers

The Changing Landscape of the European Financial Services Sector