In infrastructure project practice, balancing and maximizing the combined effect of exploratory and exploitative innovation have attracted increasing attention, but it is still unclear how to foster ambidextrous innovation in infrastructure projects. To address this gap, we draw on the differentiation-integration framework of ambidexterity theory to deconstruct tactics for fostering ambidextrous innovation in infrastructure projects. A total of 313 observations were collected from infrastructure under construction, and the path hypotheses were tested by hierarchical regression. The findings suggest that in infrastructure projects, task conflict and expertise integration of diverse cross-functional teams provide powerful and complementary tactics for fostering ambidextrous innovation. The moderating effect of team autonomy support on the impact of team diversity on differentiation and integration tactics presents three different results. This study not only enriches the literature on how to foster ambidextrous innovation in infrastructure projects but also expands the ambidexterity research at the cross-functional team level and in infrastructure project contexts.

In emerging economies, infrastructure projects are in full swing. There is a wealth of replicable experience for exploitation. Simultaneously, more technologies and methodologies require further exploration. This makes fostering ambidextrous innovation strategies (i.e., the tradeoff between exploitative and exploratory innovation strategies) a common and vital practical issue. Large infrastructure projects are unique one-off endeavors but have somewhat repetitive and persistent characteristics. It is a particular “intermediate” form between temporary projects and permanent organizations. Previous research on fostering ambidextrous innovation strategies cannot simply be replicated in large infrastructure projects. To address this issue, this article investigates the relationship between team heterogeneity and ambidextrous innovation strategies and also the role of team learning and identification in large infrastructure projects. Data were collected from 269 responses from 31 large infrastructure project delivery teams in China. The findings show that team heterogeneity has a positive linear effect on exploratory and ambidextrous innovation strategies and an inverted U-shaped effect on exploitative innovation strategies; team heterogeneity can better foster ambidextrous innovation strategies through improving team learning; the moderating role of team identification in the overall mechanism differs from the usual assumptions in permanent organizations. Overall, this article extends the existing ambidexterity research in the “intermediate” form between temporary projects and permanent organizations. It provides insights and guidance on fostering ambidextrous innovation strategies in large infrastructure projects.