Editor, Executive and Entrepreneur: Strategic Paradoxes in the Digital Age

• Tor-Bøe Lillegraven ^[1] ; Erik Wilberg ^[2]
  1. [1] Copenhagen Business School

     Copenhagen Business School

     Dinamarca

     
  2. [2] BI Norwegian Business School

     BI Norwegian Business School

     Noruega

     
• Localización: Nordicom review: Nordic research on media & communication, ISSN 1403-1108, Vol. 37, Nº. 2, 2016, págs. 115-130
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • To survive in today’s increasingly complex business environments, firms must embrace strategic paradoxes: contradictory yet interrelated objectives that persist over time. This can be one of toughest of all leadership challenges, as managers must accept inconsist- ency and contradictions. In this article, we develop and empirically test a set of hypotheses related to ambidexterity, a key example of a paradoxical strategy. Through our analysis of data from a survey of executive leaders, we find a link between organizational ambidexter - ity and strategic planning, suggesting that the complexities of navigating in explorative ventures require more explicit strategy work than the old certainties of a legacy business.

    We identify and discuss inherent paradoxes and their implications for firm performance in 22 industry-specific strategies, where empirical industry data shows a pattern of conflict between explorative growth strategies and exploitative profit strategies. We argue that this is just one of the inherent paradoxes in the ambidexterity construct.