Abstract
The ability to exploit and explore within the context of innovation has become an important issue in the strategic management of firms. What has been missing from this discussion is a consideration of the ability and willingness of different family constituencies to arrive at organizational ambidexterity (OA). We propose that due to their idiosyncratic structure, family-controlled firms display specific advantages and disadvantages that shape organizational ambidexterity. Building on a combinatory consideration of the ability and willingness framework in the context of organizational ambidexterity, we argue that the ability of family-controlled firms to arrive at OA is contingent on their willingness to face family-related disadvantages via activities that allow for the reduction of flaws arising out of family-related particularistic constituencies. Furthermore, we show that heterogeneity among those family-controlled firms is best explained by idiosyncratic differences in divergent governance structures, resources and goals.