中小企業における両利き経営に関する考察

抄録

This paper describes success factors of ambidexterity, which is the ability to pursue “exploitation” and “exploration” simultaneously, in small- and medium-sized firms (SMEs). “Exploitation” creates reliability in experience through refinement, routinization, production, and implementation of knowledge. “Exploration” creates variety in experience through search, discovery, novelty, innovation, and experimentation. Recent papers on innovation have increasingly indicated the need for firms to achieve a balance between the two.

However, there is still a small number of previous researches on the ability of SMEs. In this paper, we find evidences which support the following hypotheses based on two samples of SMEs; (1) Top managers search the field or the theme of a start-up business, (2) SMEs adopt a system of “contextual ambidexterity”, where employees are in charge of both an existing business (“exploitation”) and a start-up business (“exploration”) (3) Top managers support employees belonging to the two businesses, (4) Motivations of employees in SMEs aren’t likely to occur conflict between the two businesses.