Balancing Digital Innovation and Cybersecurity Capabilities through Organizational Ambidexterity – An Investigation in the Automotive Industry

Abstract

An organization’s digital innovation capability, i.e., its ability to leverage (technological) trends and developments, is not only associated with opportunities but also entails challenges and risks. Various incidents underline the importance of cybersecurity in this context. While organizations in the automotive industry have recognized both as inevitable, they perceive a trade-off between their innovation and cybersecurity capabilities. As digital innovations are often prestigious, they might prioritize factors like time-to-market and postpone cybersecurity to development and operations. To identify factors enabling organizations to balance the ambidextrous requirements of the two, we conducted an interview study in the automotive industry. Our findings indicate that organizational ambidexterity enabled by strategic and operational elements can minimize the trade-off and the associated risks, with implications for both theory and practice.