How to adopt an ambidextrous approach to face the economic crisis. A case analysis of an Italian small firm

Objectives – This paper aims to examine how ambidextrous strategies can be effectively adopted by small businesses to face the economic crisis. Prior work – Ambidextrous strategies combine a defensive and offensive approach, retrenchment and investment/innovation, and short- and long-term perspective. According to the main literature, ambidextrous strategies are more likely to be successful in an economic downturn. Nevertheless, they are considered a challenge for small businesses, which often have limited resources, especially during an economic crisis. Approach – Through the analysis of a “prelude case”, small businesses’ approach to ambidextrous strategies when dealing with economic crisis has been identified, together with factors and conditions that can favor small firms to adopt these strategies. Results – Ambidextrous strategies were pursued by the small business with the aim to reduce the effects of economic crisis on firm performance and, at the same time, to maintain the competitive position of the firm. Necessary conditions, indispensable in implementing an ambidextrous strategy and facilitating conditions, which can facilitate this strategy without being indispensable, were identify. Implications –The paper could be of interest for academics and small entrepreneurs to analyse conditions that may help small firms to overcome the lack of resources and to also be effective at adopting an ambidextrous strategy during the economic downturn. Originality/value – Contributions on this subject are sporadic, fragmented, focused on big companies or characterized by a lack of empirically based study. This study makes a contribution to the literature by shedding light on how ambidextrous strategies may be adopted by small businesses in order to face the economic recession. More specifically, it provides a synthesis of approaches, behaviours, factors and conditions that could promote ambidextrous strategies.