Mechanism of Balancing the Tension between Consistency and Relevance of Brand Ambidexterity by Digital Enablement — A Case Study of HUANYI International Travel Agency

According to Taoist Yin-Yang thinking, we enrich the connotation of brand ambidexterity (Beverland et al., 2015) and illustrate the mechanism on how digital technology can promote and enable the integration of brand consistency and relevance. Based on an in-depth case study of the firm named HUANYI in China, we identify that digital enablement can trigger brand ambidexterity from outward and inward during a three-stage process: the outward logic of digital enablement is “consistency is in relevance”, which is to achieve customer identification normalized and visualized through interaction of brand identity and digital enablement; the inward logic is “relevance is in consistency”, which is to arouse employees’ belongingness in the same way as outward. We conclude with suggestions on how to make digital technology useful for brand ambidexterity in theoretical and practical contributions, the limitations and implications for future research are also mentioned.