Managing skunkworks to achieve ambidexterity: The Robinson Crusoe effect

Carole Donada (), Caroline Mothe and Joaquín Alegre
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Carole Donada: ESSEC Business School
Caroline Mothe: IREGE - Institut de Recherche en Gestion et en Economie - USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry] - Université Savoie Mont Blanc
Joaquín Alegre: UV - Universitat de València = University of Valencia

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Abstract: Literature on ambidexterity emphasizes the need for both exploration and exploitation. Large firms usually choose to implement structural ambidexterity to separate both activities. We here focus on an extreme case of such structural partitioning implemented as a secret skunkworks project in a large French automotive company. A qualitative survey using both primary and secondary data shows that the major basic and initial characteristics of a skunkworks (i.e. secrecy, urgency, and autonomy) created favorable conditions for the technological exploration. However, exploitation failed due to precisely those same characteristics coupled with the fact that the project did not respond to a specific market demand: The skunkworks suffered from what we call the "Robinson Crusoe effect." We therefore contribute to the literature on skunkworks, which have remained understudied in the academic literature, as well as on ambidexterity, by showing how the interrelation between different factors is crucial for structural ambidexterity to be successful.

Keywords: Ambidexterity; Exploitation/exploration; Skunkworks; Radical innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Published in European Management Journal, 2021, 39 (2), pp.214-225. ⟨10.1016/j.emj.2020.07.008⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03969325

DOI: 10.1016/j.emj.2020.07.008

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