<scp>Exploration–Exploitation</scp>: How business analytics powers organisational ambidexterity for environmental sustainability
Authors: Shi, Yunfei; Van Toorn, Christine; McEwan, Mikayla
Journal: Information Systems Journal (2024)
DOI: 10.1111/isj.12456
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Simultaneous exploration and exploitation (i.e., exploration–exploitation) can help a firm address short‐term environmental requirements and ensure long‐term environmental viability. Exploration–exploitation, however, challenges organisational practices because they compete for resources and time. While business analytics (BA) offers the potential to overcome these challenges, research to date offers very limited insights into how BA capabilities interact with ambidextrous capabilities to realise environmental value. We address this issue by conducting a comparative case study at a bank and at a real‐estate trust through the theoretical lens of dynamic capabilities. We develop a process model to explain how BA powers ambidextrous practices to achieve sustainability outcomes over time. We uncover two mechanisms: a <jats:italic>BA‐powered context shaping</jats:italic> mechanism by which BA powers contextual ambidexterity at the employee level using data availability, timeliness, and analytics culture; and a <jats:italic>BA‐powered resource linking</jats:italic> mechanism by which BA powers structural ambidexterity at intra‐ and inter‐organisa…