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Ambidexterity in Familienunternehmen:

Die Top-Management-Familie als Innovationsinkubator

  • Chapter
Organisation und Strategie

Zusammenfassung

Die Forschung zu organisationaler ambidexterity untersucht die strategische Fähigkeit von Organisationen, ihr vorhandenes Wissen zu nutzen (exploitation) und neues zu generieren (exploration). Um Konflikte aus den beiden Lernmodi zu umgehen, werden in der ambidexterity-Forschung strukturelle und kontextuelle Lösungsmöglichkeiten vorgeschlagen. Gegenstand der Fallanalyse ist ein innovatives mittelständisches Familienunternehmen. Durch die Kopplung zweier Subsysteme (Unternehmen und Familie) gelten Familienunternehmen als kontextuell hybrid. Die Ergebnisse fördern zutage, wie die Familienkultur eine geschützte Entwicklung radikaler Innovationen ermöglicht (Innovationsinkubator), während die herausragende hierarchische Stellung der Familie im Unternehmen für die Einhaltung festgelegter Prozesse und die konsequente Generierung von inkrementalen Innovationen sorgt. Es wird gezeigt, wie die Top-Management-Familie mit widersprüchlichen Bezugsrahmen umgeht und Wissensströme zwischen strukturell getrennten Bereichen verbindet. Zudem zeigen die Daten eine unternehmerische Rolle des Top-Managements, wodurch die in der ambidexterity-Forschung vorherrschende administrative Rolle relativiert wird.

Abstract

Research on organizational ambidexterity investigates the strategic capability of organizations to use their existing knowledge (exploitation) and to generate new knowledge (exploration). Ambidexterity research proposes structural and contextual solutions to evade conflicts between the two contradicting learning modes. The object of analysis is an innovative, mid-sized, family-owned business. Family businesses are considered contextually as hybrid because of their coupling of two subsystems (company - family). Our results show how the family culture facilitates radical innovations in a protected learning environment ( “innovation incubator“). The position of the owner family at the top of the organization 's hierarchy empowers operational exploitation. This, in turn, allows us to investigate the ability of the top management family to deal with competing frames and to integrate knowledge flows resulting from structurally divided domains. In addition, our data show the proactive, entrepreneurial role of the top-management team, relativizing its administrative role, which has hitherto been at the centre of the current ambidexterity research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Forschungsinstitut für Familienunternehmen, WU Wien, Augasse 2-6, 1090, Wien

    ao.Univ. Prof. Dr. Hermann Frank

  2. Institut für Human Resource and Change Management, Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, Altenberger Straße 69, 4040, Linz

    Univ. Prof. Dr. Wolfgang H. Güttel

  3. Institut für Small Business Management und Entrepreneurship, WU Wien, Wien, Augasse 2-6, 1090

    Mag. Daniela Weismeier-Sammer

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  1. ao.Univ. Prof. Dr. Hermann Frank
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  2. Univ. Prof. Dr. Wolfgang H. Güttel
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  3. Mag. Daniela Weismeier-Sammer
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Frank, H., Güttel, W.H., Weismeier-Sammer, D. (2010). Ambidexterity in Familienunternehmen:. In: Schreyögg, G., Conrad, P. (eds) Organisation und Strategie. Gabler. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-8349-8982-6_6

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