Research On The Ambidextrous Organization Solving The ’alexander Dilemma’

Year1997, the professor Christensen of the Harvard University putforward the theory of ‘Disruptive Innovation’ for the first time, whichprovided new strategic way for latecomer firm overstepping incumbentfirm. It seems that the incumbent firm can’t breakthrough the inertia ofthe organization and operation, thus into the dilemma of the short-termbenefit and long-term interest and toward failure and destruction which iscalled ‘Alexander Dilemma’.This paper demonstrates the process of the incumbent firm fallinginto the ‘Alexander Dilemma’ by the cases of the semiconductor industryand the iron and steel industry of USA, based on the prospect of theincumbent firm. Then the paper analyses the reason of ‘AlexanderDilemma’ from internal and external point of view by the tools of S-curveand game theory. It illustrates that the core rigidities, path dependenceand organizational inertia of the incumbent firm restraint the innovation;from the market point of view, by the restraint of sunk costs and highexpected profits, the innovation driven of the incumbent firm is low. Then the incumbent firm will input less resource to the disruptive innovationleading to its failure.This paper points out that the ambidextrous organization would be auseful way for the incumbent firm solving ‘Alexander Dilemma’ by therelated research on the ambidextrous organization. After the descriptionof the ambidextrous organization theory, this paper analyses theinnovation cases of3M, ABB, Philips, Johnson&Johnson and ShanghaiZhenhua Port Machinery. Finally, with the theoretical research and casesanalysis, the ‘Innovation Management Frame of AmbidextrousOrganization Based on Dynamic Capability’ is put forward which cangive some guideline to the incumbent firm.