Cooperative enterprise enabler of organizational ambidexterity & business ecosystems
Andres Camargo Benavides is a PhD student in the Department NIKOS Centre for Entrepreneurship, Strategy, Internation Business and Marketing. (Co)Promotors are dr. M.L. Ehrenhard and dr. M. de Visser from the Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences.
For decades, The cooperative enterprise (CE) has produced market goods and provided services in the interest of communities, customers, and its members. The CE promotes social stability, solves market failures, and alleviates poverty. However, more is needed to know how the CE supports its members in adapting for short- and long-term survival. Nowadays, markets work in a complex and interconnected environment where businesses generate diverse interactions with increased interdependence, connectivity, and co-evolution between actors, technologies, and organizations.
This dissertation addresses the central research question from a strategic management perspective, organizational knowledge, and knowledge management lens based on the relevance of organizational ambidexterity and business ecosystem frameworks. Likewise, this research is conducted using an organizational and inter-organizational level of analysis. I examined the CE’s role enabling exploration and exploitation activities within the inter-organizational network shaped by the CE and their members. Furthermore, I study the role of the CE fosters their business ecosystem along with their members. For this purpose, this dissertation explored how SME members of interfirm cooperatives created value outside the firm's boundaries in collaboration with competitors and other actors.
The findings reveal that by understanding the inherent symbiotic inter-organizational relationship between the CE and its members, The CE can be an enabler, facilitator, and intermediary of ambidexterity. Besides, sustainability is ensured over time when explorative and exploitative behavior emerges within the CE.
