Purpose When public employees demonstrate ambidexterity in serving customers, through efficiently providing customers with current public services as well as exploring ways to create more, new public service solutions for customers, they may activate customers’ co-creating value with the public organization. The purpose of this research is to examine the role of public employees’ individual ambidexterity in promoting customer value co-creation. This research also seeks to investigate the levers behind individual ambidexterity, including ambidextrous leadership as an antecedent and public service motivation (PSM) as an enhancer for the leadership effect. Design/methodology/approach Public employees from public legal service agencies and customer companies they had served have been invited to participate and provide data for this research. The data collated have been analyzed using multilevel structural equation modeling approach. Findings Ambidextrous leadership was positively associated with frontline public employees’ individual ambidexterity. This positive association was enhanced by PSM among frontline public employees. In turn, frontline public employees’ individual ambidexterity demonstrated a positive link with customer value co-creation through the mediation mechanisms of customer–employee identification and customer–organization identification. Originality/value This research extends and marks the convergence between ambidexterity and customer value co-creation research streams.

Purpose The interaction between opening and closing behaviors of ambidextrous leadership produces “change” energy among employees. The purpose of this paper is to assess the role of ambidextrous leadership in fostering job crafting via entrepreneurial orientation. The paper also seeks an insight into how organizational social exchange moderates the effect of ambidextrous leadership on entrepreneurial orientation. Design/methodology/approach Research data were garnered from 427 supervisor–subordinate dyads from software companies in the Vietnamese business context. Findings Research findings corroborated the positive relationship between ambidextrous leadership and entrepreneurial orientation, which is positively associated with job crafting. Research results also provided evidence for the mediation role of entrepreneurial orientation for the positive link between ambidextrous leadership and job crafting, as well as for the moderation role of organizational social exchange for the effect of ambidextrous leadership on entrepreneurial orientation. Originality/value Research findings have extended ambidexterity theory of leadership by identifying job crafting as an outcome of ambidextrous leadership and entrepreneurial orientation as a mediator for this relationship.

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