Site-shifting as the source of ambidexterity: Empirical insights from the field of ticketing

Ambidexterity, defined as the capability to simultaneously explore knowledge to identify new market opportunities and exploit knowledge to capitalise on a firm's existing niches, is considered to be crucial in today's competitive marketplace. However, there is relatively limited research on how such a capability can be developed, and even less on the role of IT-enabled practices in promoting this. Drawing on the strategy-as-practice perspective, we investigate how interrelationships amongst practitioners, IT-enabled practices and praxis create a particular site of practice. More importantly, we consider how a site gets shifted over time through the emergence of changes in the interrelationships between IT-enabled practices and practitioners, stimulated by on-going praxis. Building on the findings derived from a case study of DaM,1 the leading ticketing company in China, we explain how the phenomenon of site-shifting can provide a useful conceptual lens for explaining ambidexterity. In doing this, we bring to the fore the importance of IT in achieving an ambidexterity capability.