Tom Mom

Tom Mom is Assistant Professor at the Department of Strategic Management and Business Environment at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University.

Research interests:

  • Strategic Renewal and Corporate Entrepreneurship
  • Management of Exploration (Innovation) and Exploitation (Efficiency)
  • Organizational Learning
  • Knowledge Management - knowledge sharing, creation, and application

Selected publications:

  • Mom, T.J.M., Bosch, F.A.J. Van Den, & Volberda, H.W. (2009). Organization Science, Special Issue on Ambidexterity, conditional accept
  • Mom, T.J.M., Bosch, F.A.J. Van Den, & Volberda, H.W. (2007). Investigating Managers’ Exploration and Exploitation Activities: The Influence of Top-Down, Bottom-up, and Horizontal Knowledge Inflows. Journal of Management Studies, 44, p. 910-931
  • Mom, T.J.M., Bosch, F.A.J. van den, & Volberda, H.W. (2005). Managing the Tension between Competence Building and and Competence Leveraging by Influencing Managerial and Organizational Determinants of Horizontal Knowledge Exchange. In Sanchez, R & Heene, A. (Eds.), Research in Competence Based Management, a Focussed Issue on Managing Knowledge Assets and Organizational Learning (pp. 165-192). Oxford: Elsevier
  • Mom, T.J.M., Bosch, F.A.J. van den, & Volberda, H.W. (2005). The Influence of Managerial and Organizational Determinants of Horizontal Knowledge Exchange on Competence Building and Competence Leveraging. ERIM Report Series (Int. rep. 080-STR). ERIM Erasmus Research Institute of Management
  • Mom, T.J.M., Bosch, F.A.J. van den, & Volberda, H.W. (2002). Exploitatie en Exploratie van kennis: managen van de determinanten van horizontale kennisuitwisseling. Management en Organisatie, 56(5), 23-43

Works on:

  • Understanding variation in managers' ambidexterity
    6 April 2009, Working Paper

    Previous research focuses on firm and business unit level ambidexterity. Therefore, conceptual and empirically validated understanding about ambidexterity at the individual level of analysis is very scarce. This paper addresses this gap in the literature by investigating managers’ ambidexterity,delivering three contributions to theory and empirical research on ambidexterity. First, by proposing three related characteristics of ambidextrous managers. Second, by developing a model and associated hypotheses on both the direct and interaction effects of formal structural and personal coordination mechanisms on managers’ ambidexterity. And third, by testing the hypotheses based on a sample of 716 business unit level and operational level managers.

    Findings regarding the formal structural mechanisms indicate that a manager’s decision making authority positively relates to this manager’s ambidexterity whereas formalization of a manager’s tasks has no significant relationship with this manager’s ambidexterity. Regarding the personal coordination mechanisms, findings indicate that both participation of a manager in crossfunctional interfaces and connectedness of a manager to other organization members, positively relate to this manager’s ambidexterity. Furthermore, results show positive interaction effects between the formal structural and personal coordination mechanisms on managers’ ambidexterity. The paper’s theoretical contributions and the empirical results increase our understanding about managers’ ambidexterity and about how different types and combinations of coordination mechanisms relate to variation in managers’ ambidexterity.