The Effect of Ambidextrous Strategic Leadership on Creating Shared Value
Purpose: The main aim of the article is to provide an overview of how the strategic leadership characteristic ambidexterity, impacts the creation of shared value in companies. Design/Methodology/Approach: This study builds upon a previous literature content analysis and relies on primary data collection and comprehensive analysis of the collected data. The structural equation modelling (SEM) technique was applied to examine the two constructs such as exploration and exploitation, as characteristics of ambidextrous leadership and its effect on business and social results. Findings: The analysis revealed that ambidexterity plays a significant role in creating shared value for companies. The results show that ambidextrous strategic leaders are more effective in creating social and business results simultaneously compared to those who do not possess this characteristic. The findings suggest a positive relationship between ambidexterity and creating shared value, meaning that the more ambidextrous the leader, the higher the likelihood of creating shared value. Furthermore, the study shows that leaders tend to be more optimistic about future opportunities and trends, which indicates that they focus more on exploring new opportunities rather than exploiting existing resources. However, the study also revealed that there is a more pessimistic view when it comes to exploiting current resources to their full potential. Practical Implications/limitations: In this paper, the authors recognise the limitations in the application of the construct of ambidextrous strategic leadership. Although strategic leadership has several characteristics and constructs, this research focuses on ambidexterity and the two related its sub-constructs of exploiting and exploring. Moreover, the sample size of companies analysed in the study may not represent all types of organisations as the focus has been on medium and large sized companies. Originality/value: The research results contribute to the further understanding of the impact of ambidextrous strategic leadership on improving organisational performance, particularly on the creation of social and business results by measuring each ambidextrous strategic leadership constructs such as exploitation and exploration impact on social and business results separately.