Reaching organizational ambidexterity in the merger process: a temporal switching Anne-Sophie Thelisson Department of Strategy, ESDES, Lyon, France and The Catholic University of Lyon, Lyon, France Audrey Missonier Department of Strategy, Montpellier Business School, Montpellier, France, and Gilles Guieu Department of Strategy, Aix-Marseille University, Aix-en-Provence Cedex, France Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how a company reaches organizational ambidexterity during a merger process. Organizational ambidexterity refers to the proactive adaptations of an organization to simultaneously explore and exploit. Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents a longitudinal case study of a public-private merger of two listed French companies. The data were collected from participant observation, interviews and archival documentation over two years. Findings – The balance between autonomy and control by the parent companies evolves during the post- merger integration. The findings reveal that there was no concordance between the oscillations between autonomy and control on the part of the parent companies and the new organization’s exploration/exploitation strategies. However, the progressive evolution of control and autonomy from the parent companies engendered organizational ambidexterity during the third phase integration. Practical implications – The study adds insight into how organizations can develop ways to manage organizational ambidexterity dynamics by employing temporal mechanisms, referring to an organization’s shifting sequentially between exploration and exploitation. The case highlights how temporal switching between exploration and exploitation occurs to ultimately enable ambidexterity. Originality/value – Although organizational ambidexterity is recognized as a key element for post-merger integration, how it is achieved over the course of the merger process has received little attention. The study highlights that in the case of public-private mergers, the parent companies influence exploration and/or exploitation strategies. The paper adds insights on whether exploration and exploitation can be differentiated over time and whether exploration and exploitation can be reconciled at the same time. Keywords Longitudinal case study, Organizational ambidexterity Paper type Research paper Introduction Organizational ambidexterity is a proactive adaptation that enables an organization to simultaneously exploit and explore (O’Reilly and Tushman, 2008; Carmeli and Halevi, 2009). Some scholars even consider it to be a necessary condition for performance and survival (March, 1991; He and Wong, 2004; Papachroni et al., 2015), especially in the mergers and acquisitions (M&As) context (Meglio et al., 2015). Companies usually grow through M&As, and during the process, organizational ambidexterity is a key competency to ensure high performance (Nemanich and Vera, 2009). It is especially crucial in the integration period (Nemanich and Vera, 2009). According to Nemanich and Vera (2009), successful acquisition integrations require the ability to combine “the old” and “the new,” achieving consistency while enabling new ideas. Despite the high number of M&As, their failure rate remains high (Bauer and Matzler, 2014). Postmerger integration (PMI) is the stage in the merger process when the new organization must show its ability to create value (Haspeslagh and Jemison, 1991). Management Decision Vol. 58 No. 5, 2020 pp. 879-896 © Emerald Publishing Limited 0025-1747 DOI 10.1108/MD-10-2017-0947 Received 7 October 2017 Revised 19 December 2018 12 April 2019 17 April 2019 Accepted 7 June 2019 The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: www.emeraldinsight.com/0025-1747.htm 879 Reaching organizational ambidexterity