Ambidexterity in Service Innovation Research: A Systematic Literature Review

Increased interconnectedness of multiple actors and digital resources in service eco-systems offer new opportunities for service innovation. In digitally transforming eco-systems, organizations need to explore and exploit innovation simultaneously, which is defined as ambidexterity. However, research on ambidextrous service innovation is scarce. We provide a systematic literature review based on the concepts of ambidexterity, offering two contributions. First, research strands are disconnected, emphasizing either exploration or exploitation of service innovation, despite an organizations’ need to accelerate innovation cycles of exploring and exploiting services. Second, a new framework for ambidextrous service innovation is provided, inspired by the dynamism and generative mechanisms of the ontologically related concept of organizational routines. The framework adopts the perspective of a mutually constitutive relationship between exploring new and exploiting current resources, activities, and knowledge. The findings remedy the scattered literature through a coherent perspective on service innovation that responds to organizations’ needs and guides future research.