The main objective of this paper is to contribute to the literature on ambidexterity in SMEs by providing, more specifically, a look at the relationship between ambidexterity and risk in these companies. Our main theoretical objective is to identify the role played by ambidexterity as well as its components, exploration and exploitation, on the systematic risk of SMEs listed on the Euronext Growth stock market. Our interest therefore is to understand the role played by ambidexterity in risk management within SMEs, in view of increasing their chance of survival at this particular development stage. The results of our research show that, on a short-term systematic risk (one β to two years) of SMEs listed on Euronext Growth, exploration has an amplifying effect while exploitation has a reducing effect. Contrary to what was expected, ambidexterity also has an amplifying effect on systematic risk, which invites us to explore the explanatory elements of this result going against the widely accepted observation in the literature that ambidexterity plays a positive role in risk reduction.
