Chapter summary

Given the tensions on strategy practitioners and their organizations to gain competitive advantage in increasingly turbulent and competitive markets, the concept of ambidexterity has been gaining traction. This chapter aims to allow readers to: appreciate the nature of strategic ambidexterity and how it supports efforts of organizations and their managers to deal with contradictory tensions; explore the processes through which strategic ambidexterity can be achieved and, finally, to help them understand the practices and actions that practitioners can adopt to enhance their firm’s strategic ambidexterity.

Keywords: complex firms; complex organizations; large firms; practitioners, practices and praxis; strategy context; strategizing; strategy as practice