innovation streams and ambidextrous organization designs michael tushman wendy k smith robert chapman wood george westerman charles o reilly december 15 2004 correspondence to harvard business school soldiers field road morgan hall rm 313 boston ma 02163 tel 617 495 5442 fax 496 6554 e mail mtushman hbs edu abstract this paper empirically explores the relations between alternative organizational a firm s ability explore as well exploit we operationalize exploitation exploration in terms of incremental existing products exploring into architectural or discontinuous based on depth data units 36 episodes investigate consequences design choices outcomes find that are significantly more effective executing than functional cross teams unsupported autonomous phenomena their characteristics how they operate boundary conditions these complex forms evolve given our results discuss senior nature adaptation 1 challenge managing both efficiency flexibility continues
