The effect of performance measurement systems use on contextual ambidexterity and company performance

This research looks at how performance measurement systems can be used to drive simultaneously exploitative and explorative behaviours in the context of a single business unit. The project draws on two main bodies of literature: organizational ambidexterity (exploration and exploitation), and performance measurement and management. The results of our survey of 153 Italian companies suggests that: (1) integrating diagnostic and interactive uses of measurement systems positively affects organizational performance (financial and non-financial); (2) this relationship is mediated by a company’s ability to innovate its products or services, while exploiting existing assets and resources in the same context.