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  • LRP_2018_43_Revision 2

    Rights statement: This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Long Range Planning. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Long Range Planning, 53, 6, 2019 DOI: 10.1016/j.lrp.2019.05.002

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Behind ambidextrous search: The microfoundations of search in family and non-family firms

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Article number101882
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>1/12/2020
<mark>Journal</mark>Long Range Planning
Issue number6
Volume53
Number of pages21
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date8/05/19
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

We offer a microfoundational perspective to challenge the consensual view of ambidextrous search as a superior approach to addressing performance problems. We characterize the nature of search as both ostensive and agentic, and suggest that search performance is idiosyncratic across individuals and highly dependent on decision makers' cognitive frameworks and social contexts. To test our theory, we develop a mathematical simulation model that formalizes the mechanisms regulating the search behaviors of senior leaders in both family and non-family firms. Our results suggest that a search approach that is conducive to superior performance in non-family firms may yield inferior performance in family firms depending on the senior leader's family membership and her/his positional history in the firm (i.e., non-family, founder, later-generation). Moreover, we reveal that while ambidexterity constitutes a superior search approach for family firms with founder CEOs, those with non-family or later-generation CEOs would seem to benefit from specialization.

Bibliographic note

This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Long Range Planning. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Long Range Planning, 53, 6, 2019 DOI: 10.1016/j.lrp.2019.05.002