Effective Factors on Ambidextrous Social Capital

Abstract

Organizational ambidexterity is defined as the ability of companies to simultaneously explore and exploit. One of the key resources to achieve ambidexterity, is social capital. This study seeks to identify factors influencing the creation of an ambidextrous social capital at defense-industrial organization. In order to achieve this goal, the combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods were used. Initially the focus group was used, and based on its results, a questionnaire was prepared and in the sample of 98, were distributed in the organization. 32 items extracted from the literature an focus group meetings, 3 key competencies, were analyzed using structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). As a result in the organization, structural social capital with dimensions strong-bonds and weak-ties; cognitive social capital with dimensions values, vision and language (narratives); and relational social capital with dimensions trust, norms and identity were the most important in the studied organization.

Keywords

• exploration
• exploitation
• ambidexterity
• social capital
• ambidextrous social capital