TY - EJOU AU - Lee, L. Michael T. AU - Gaudioso, G. Nicholas V. TI - Understanding Firm Growth and Revival through Ambidexterity: An Accounting and Organizational Perspective T2 - Journal of Business Accounting and Finance Perspectives PY - 2020 VL - 2 IS - 2 SN - 2603-7475 AB - Young firms and established firms have a tendency to emphasize one type of organizational learning to their detriment. This reduces organizational ambidexterity and makes them susceptible to failure. This study explores how two high-tech manufacturing firms use cost information from an accounting system to balance exploitation and exploration learning for ambidexterity. A successful growth firm and a revival firm are examined since both of these business life-cycle stages focus on a strategy of aggressive building. The evidence shows that the use of cost information to balance learning and achieve ambidexterity is different between a growth firm and revival firm. The use of cost information for exploitation and exploration is undertaken by taking each firm’s learning pre-disposition, pivoting organizational culture, and utilizing a functional structure to realize contextual and structural ambidexterity. This study provides preliminary models for future research on accounting and the organizational elements for achieving organizational ambidexterity. KW - activity-based costing KW - ambidexterity KW - exploitation KW - exploration KW - variable costing DO - 10.35995/jbafp2020008