How Organizations Operating Under Persistent Resource Constraints Achieve Integrated Operational Reliability and Innovation

This dissertation study examines how organizations in emerging economies, operating under persistent resource constraints, achieve integrated operational reliability and innovation. Integrating ambidexterity, emerging-economy, organizational action and learning, and pragmatist perspectives, it uses a longitudinal qualitative case study of a digital infrastructure firm over 15 years (2008–2023), guided by a Departure-Based Pragmatist Action Framework that traces breakdowns, departures from established practice, and evaluation and adjustment. It aims to explain ambidexterity under constraint as an emergent, practice-based accomplishment and to offer practitioners a process-oriented approach to reliability–innovation tensions.