PurposeWhat distinguishes digital transformation from other traditional IT transformations is its involvement of the entire organization, rather than merely the IT department. Thus, instead of taking a perspective that is confined to the IT department, this paper studies the ambidextrous nature of digital transformation (DT) from the standpoint of the whole firm. The authors define DT ambidexterity as the capability to utilize digital technology to simultaneously improve the efficiency of existing businesses (DT exploitation) and to promote business growth (DT exploration).Design/methodology/approachUsing annual reports of Chinese firms as a mining material, this paper deploys text mining and word frequency analysis to develop a data set of digital transformation to construct DT exploitation, DT exploration and DT ambidexterity, so that the authors can examine and compare their impact on business performance.FindingsThis study's statistics show that observations in this research sample mainly manifest DT ambidexterity and DT exploitation, while DT exploration makes up the smallest proportion. The authors find that DT exploitation, DT exploration, and DT ambidexterity have positive, yet heterogeneous effects on business performance.Research limitations/implicationsThis study expands the existing literature of IT-related ambidexterity by examining the ambidextrous nature of DT from the angle of company-wide strategy instead of the perspective from IT-department and expands the extant literature of digital transformation by examining the heterogeneous effects of its different components on business performance. The authors also add to the digital strategizing literature by showing that different business strategy goals can be attained through different stages of DT.Originality/valueThis study expands the existing literature of IT-related ambidexterity by examining the ambidexterity nature of DT from the angle of company-wide strategy instead of the perspective from IT department and expands the extant literature of digital transformation by examining the heterogeneous effects of its different components on business performance. The authors also add to the digital strategizing literature by showing that different business strategy goals can be attained through different stages of DT.