Facilitating Ambidexterity as a key Dynamic Capability for Enabling Eco-innovation in SMEs

The scale of both environmental and economic challenges in the global economy highlights the need for technological and behavioural change and renewal on an unprecedented level. Innovation is widely seen as being central to the success of societal responses to environmental challenges. Efforts have focused on how best to stimulate innovation towards more environmentally sustainable solutions – eco-innovation. Pursuing an eco-innovation strategy requires firms to have the capability to change and adapt on a continuous basis as eco-innovations become increasingly better, thus contributing to dynamic market conditions. Sustained competitive advantage however requires ambidexterity to balance the need for innovate with the need to simultaneously improve existing processes and technologies. SMEs have a distinct and critical role to play in eco-innovation and have historically been disproportionately responsible for new market developments and initial diffusion of innovation generally. However, ambidexterity is difficult to achieve for SMEs with limited resources. This action research study lends a pragmatic lens by successfully improving ambidexterity as a key dynamic capability for eco-innovation in 12 SMEs with whom the researcher engages as part of her daily work on a EU Project.

This seminar is one of a series of seminars in the 2016 Whitaker Ideas Forum.  Margaret will be representing the Innovation & Structural Change Research Cluster.