Ambidextrous management of a large, complex engineering project with significant innovations-case study of the sutong bridge project

The ambidextrous management of exploratory learning and exploitative learning during the limited time-span of large, complex projects with significant innovations is often necessary to spur creativity while ensuring reliability and efficiency, but is challenging due to the differences in organizational support needed for the two learning approaches. Through a case study, this paper examines how ambidextrous management can be achieved in such a complex and innovative project. The findings show that partitioning the two learning approaches in different project phases and separating funding mechanisms for the two types appear to be the two main performance drivers. Strong leadership on innovation and the flexibility in adjusting project targets also contributed to the success of the project.