Hybrid Strategy, Ambidexterity And Environment: Toward An Integrated Typology

Description

Hybrid strategy, which emerged as a contingency option to Porter’s (1980) generic strategies framework, defends that in a dynamic environment the simultaneous pursuit of “Low Cost” and “Differentiation” approaches is fundamental for the short-term performance and long-term survival of the firm. A vast amount of literature supports the benefits of adopting a mixed approach of strategy: several empirical studies have proved that a hybrid strategy establishes a firm’s performance superiority over the pure strategy choice. However, the hybrid literature has concentrated all its focus on the performance linkage and to the debate of countering the pure strategy approach, but very little attention has been paid to the challenges that the mixed strategy implementation present. In fact, despite the rich empirical literature, it has still not been elucidated how firms that adopt a hybrid strategy may successfully integrate the inherent contradiction of the “Low Cost” and “Differentiation” approaches, escaping from the “Stuck in The Middle” outcome. Furthermore, the literature reveals that several types of hybrid implementations, which should correspond to different strategy-structure-environment paradigms, exist. In order to study the characteristics
of these different types of hybrid strategies, we suggest a typology composed of four types of hybrid implementation, defined by two antecedents of the firm and two antecedents of the environment.
Additionally, we align and contrast the hybrid and ambidextrous approaches, which share many similarities. Despite the fact that they have been confounded in empirical studies, we concluded that hybridity and ambidexterity are distinct and complementary concepts: while hybrid strategy defines the value proposition of the firm (a composition of “Low Cost” and “Differentiation”), ambidexterity focus on how to deliver this value with efficiency (Exploitation) and how to renew it effectively (Exploration).

Period	Jul 2014
Event title	13th International Conference of the Society for Global Business and Economic Development: Managing the "Intangibles": Business and Entrepreneurship Perspectives in a Global Context
Event type	Conference
Conference number	13
Location	Ancona, ItalyShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International