Ambidextrous Socialization: Exercising Control in Social Media Environment

How can firms use social media environments (SMEs) to create productive ideas within an extended organization particularly if customers do not have strong identification with the company? How can firms control heterogeneous social media users to achieve organizational goals? These questions are important as the prevailing literature on SME assume that firms can exert little control over individuals´ autonomous behaviors. Based on empirical observations on how one firm used SME to increase customer engagement and innovation, we build on the theory of clan control to argue that in collective, heterogeneous, and rapidly changing knowledge intensive environments, co-creation in socialization of users is based on fundamentally different logic than in traditional organizations. We advance the concept of ambidextrous socialization, that rather than reducing uncertainty that users feel in socialization, seek to increase uncertainty and thereby promote flexibility, plurality, and adaptability in volatile, virtual, and fast moving environments.