Constructing an Explorative Approach for a New Reality: Ambidexterity in a Real Estate Context - A qualitative study at Castellum

Abstract

The real estate industry in Sweden has historically performed well with similar actors and behaviours on the market. This has resulted in a slack change of adapting the industry to the society’s new trends and behaviours, e.g. digitalization and services, compared to other industries, because of that there have not been any real incitements for it. Instead of trying to adopt themselves gradually from how the industry changes, there is an opportunity to proactively changing the business model and survive. Therefore, there are benefits for a firm of taking the lead before the industry changes of new actors entering the industry. This thesis is based on a case study at Castellum, a Swedish real estate company with focus on the Nordic market that has since 2017 run an innovation lab with the aim to pursue technology-based business development and to adapt service offerings around their business in accordance to changing conditions. We ask how does an established real estate company attempt to become an ambidextrous organization, i.e. how does it attempt to balance exploration and exploitation. We show that becoming an ambidextrous organization (with a clearer emphasis on exploration than before) could be central for gaining legitimacy. This can open up for new partnerships, benefit shareholders and customers, as well as attract and retain employees. Although hinted at in existing research into ambidextrous organization, we argue that legitimacy should be given a more prominent role in discussions of why firms attempt to become ambidextrous and the consequences of such attempts.