Capability configuration, ambidexterity and performance: Evidence from service outsourcing sector

How to resolve the dilemma of ambidexterity, or simultaneous alignment and adaption, is a vital issue in the operational field. Based on the resource management model, we argue that capability configurations could work as effective strategies for leveraging the potential of capabilities and benefit the pursuit of contradictory ambidexterity. This study explores how complementary and balance configurations of technological and marketing capabilities influence alignment and adaption and improve firm performance. Through regression analysis of data collected from service-outsourcing vendors in China, we provide evidence that both the complementary and balance configurations of these two capabilities can be used to achieve alignment and adaption, thereby improving firm performance. Moreover, whereas the complementary configuration of technological and marketing capabilities helps achieve alignment and adaption simultaneously, the balance configuration helps achieve only adaption. This study provides intriguing insights into resolving the dilemma of ambidexterity through exploiting the capability configuration strategy, which deserves scholars' attention in future studies.