The relationship between organisational foresight and organisational ambidexterity

Abstract The relationship between organisational foresight and organisational ambidexterity is the focal point of this paper. Foresight is believed to be having a positive impact on triggering organisational ambidexterity, especially explorative (radical) innovation. Very little empirical research has been done so far to test the probability of this theory with higher constraint designs. This paper reports on the results of a survey involving 230 manufacturing companies in Lithuania. It confirms the importance of organisational foresight, recognising its contribution to both explorative and exploitative innovations, i.e. organisational ambidexterity. Based on a conceptual model that describes organisational foresight as a set of environmental scanning, strategic selection and integrating capabilities, this paper proposes testable measures of organisational foresight. We empirically test the model and provide evidence to the theoretical relationship between organisational foresight and organisational ambidexterity.

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