Exploitative learning in project teams: Do cognitive capability and strategic orientations act as moderator variables?

Abstract This research aims to advance our understanding of the relationship between exploitative learning and new product development (NPD) efficiency by investigating four novel contextual variables. Based on a survey of 193 NPD projects in information technology firms located in Taiwan, we used hierarchical moderated regression analysis to test our research hypotheses. The results reveal that the relationship between exploitation and NPD efficiency is positively moderated by managerial strategic consensus and the cognitive capabilities of team members. Our findings suggest that NPD project teams engaging in exploitation yield improved NPD efficiency when the cognitive capabilities of team members and strategic consensus between managers are present. If firms desire to leverage exploitation to succeed in the highly volatile IT industry, they must recognize and create conditions under which exploitation will bring about desirable outcomes.

[1]  Laura B. Cardinal,et al.  RETROSPECTIVE REPORTS IN ORGANIZATIONAL RESEARCH: A REEXAMINATION OF RECENT EVIDENCE , 1997 .

[2]  Zi-Lin He,et al.  Exploration vs. Exploitation: An Empirical Test of the Ambidexterity Hypothesis , 2004, Organ. Sci..

[3]  Sébastien Brion,et al.  Project leaders as boundary spanners: Relational antecedents and performance outcomes , 2012 .

[4]  K. Eisenhardt,et al.  PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: PAST RESEARCH, PRESENT FINDINGS, AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS , 1995 .

[5]  R. Cooper,et al.  Benchmarking the Firm's Critical Success Factors in New Product Development , 1995 .

[6]  Li-Ren Yang,et al.  Implementation of project strategy to improve new product development performance , 2012 .

[7]  Stephen K. Reed,et al.  Cognition: Theory and Applications , 1982 .

[8]  M. Kendall,et al.  The Logic of Scientific Discovery. , 1959 .

[9]  R. Grover,et al.  From Embedded Knowledge to Embodied Knowledge: New Product Development as Knowledge Management , 1998 .

[10]  S. Kozlowski,et al.  Work Groups and Teams in Organizations , 2003 .

[11]  Daniel A. Levinthal,et al.  The myopia of learning , 1993 .

[12]  David Wilemon,et al.  Team member experiences in new product development: views from the trenches , 2003 .

[13]  Thorbjørn Knudsen,et al.  Coordinated Exploration , 2014 .

[14]  J. Scott Armstrong,et al.  Estimating nonresponse bias in mail surveys. , 1977 .

[15]  Mark A. Mone,et al.  Organizational Decline and Innovation: A Contingency Framework , 1998 .

[16]  Kuo-chung Chang,et al.  Knowledge contribution in information system development teams: An empirical research from a social cognitive perspective , 2013 .

[17]  M. Evans.  A Monte Carlo study of the effects of correlated method variance in moderated multiple regression analysis , 1985 .

[18]  B. Menguc,et al.  Balancing exploration and exploitation: The moderating role of competitive intensity , 2005 .

[19]  Fariborz Damanpour,et al.  The Application of External Knowledge: Organizational Conditions for Exploration and Exploitation , 2009 .

[20]  Richard R. Reilly,et al.  The impacts of speed-to-market on new product success: the moderating effects of uncertainty , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management.

[21]  Marjorie E. Adams,et al.  Enhancing New Product Development Performance: An Organizational Learning Perspective , 1998 .

[22]  Karlos Artto,et al.  What is project strategy , 2007 .

[23]  A. Griffin,et al.  PDMA Success Measurement Project: Recommended Measures for Product Development Success and Failure , 1996 .

[24]  M. Crossan,et al.  Organizational learning and strategic renewal , 2003 .

[25]  Ken G. Smith,et al.  The interplay between exploration and exploitation. , 2006 .

[26]  L. Stern,et al.  Conducting Interorganizational Research Using Key Informants , 1993 .

[27]  Yi-Fen Huang,et al.  The impact of technological diversity and organizational slack on innovation , 2010 .

[28]  Cengiz Yilmaz,et al.  Learning Process in New Product Development Teams and Effects on Product Success: A Socio-Cognitive Perspective , 2006 .

[29]  H. P. Sims,et al.  Top management team diversity, group process, and strategic consensus , 1999 .

[30]  P. M. Podsakoff,et al.  Self-Reports in Organizational Research: Problems and Prospects , 1986 .

[31]  C. Chu,et al.  The nature of market orientation and the ambidexterity of innovations , 2008 .

[32]  J. Henke.  Perspective: Cross-functional teams: Good concept, poor implementation! , 1993 .

[33]  Eric M. Olson,et al.  The Contingent Value of Responsive and Proactive Market Orientations for New Product Program Performance , 2005 .

[34]  Fred Langerak,et al.  The effect of new product development acceleration approaches on development speed: A case study , 2008 .

[35]  Scott W. Geiger,et al.  Exploration and exploitation innovation processes : The role of organizational slack in R & D intensive firms. , 2006 .

[36]  John W. Henke,et al.  Cross-Functional Teams: Good Concept, Poor Implementation! , 1993 .

[37]  Eric M. Olson,et al.  Organizing for effective new product development: The moderating role of product innovativeness. , 1995 .

[38]  William H. Glick,et al.  Fit, Equifinality, and Organizational Effectiveness: A Test of Two Configurational Theories , 1993 .

[39]  Henk W. Volberda,et al.  Co-evolution of Firm Absorptive Capacity and Knowledge Environment: Organizational Forms and Combinative Capabilities , 1999 .

[40]  B. Menguc,et al.  Achieving Fit between Learning and Market Orientation: Implications for New Product Performance , 2012 .

[41]  C. B. Schoonhoven.  Problems with contingency theory: testing assumptions hidden within the language of contingency "theory.". , 1981, Administrative science quarterly.

[42]  S. Floyd,et al.  Managing strategic consensus: the foundation of effective implementation , 1992 .

[43]  S. D. N. Cook,et al.  Culture and Organizational Learning , 1993 .

[44]  Dongsheng Zhou,et al.  Antecedents and consequences of the strategic orientations in new product development: The case of Chinese manufacturers , 2006 .

[45]  Per Erik Eriksson,et al.  Exploration and exploitation in project-based organizations: Development and diffusion of knowledge at different organizational levels in construction companies , 2013 .

[46]  K. R. Milner,et al.  A multiple-goal, multilevel model of feedback effects on the regulation of individual and team performance. , 2004, The Journal of applied psychology.

[47]  S. Zahra,et al.  Absorptive Capacity: A Review, Reconceptualization, and Extension , 2002 .

[48]  S. Ghoshal,et al.  Social Capital and Value Creation: The Role of Intrafirm Networks , 1998 .

[49]  Heeseok Lee,et al.  Knowledge Management Enablers, Processes, and Organizational Performance: An Integrative View and Empirical Examination , 2003, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[50]  Jon-Arild Johannessen,et al.  Aspects of innovation theory based on knowledge-management , 1999 .

[51]  S. West,et al.  Multiple Regression: Testing and Interpreting Interactions. , 1994 .

[52]  J. Katzenbach,et al.  The discipline of teams. , 1993, Harvard business review.

[53]  J. Fredrickson,et al.  TOP MANAGEMENT TEAM AGREEMENT ABOUT THE STRATEGIC DECISION PROCESS: A TEST OF SOME OF ITS DETERMINANTS AND CONSEQUENCES , 1997 .

[54]  Laurent Bourgeon,et al.  Staffing approach and conditions for collective learning in project teams: The case of new product development projects , 2007 .

[55]  B. Kogut,et al.  Knowledge of the Firm, Combinative Capabilities, and the Replication of Technology , 1992 .

[56]  Deborah G. . Ancona,et al.  Demography and Design: Predictors of New Product Team Performance , 1992 .

[57]  Esra F. Gençtürk,et al.  A Resource-Based Model of Market Learning in the Subsidiary: The Capabilities of Exploration and Exploitation , 2003 .

[58]  María Magdalena Jiménez-Barrionuevo,et al.  Transformational Leadership Influence on Organizational Performance Through Organizational Learning and Innovation , 2012 .

[59]  David W. Gerbing,et al.  An Updated Paradigm for Scale Development Incorporating Unidimensionality and Its Assessment , 1988 .

[60]  Ludwig Bstieler,et al.  The Moderating Effect of Environmental Uncertainty on New Product Development and Time Efficiency , 2005 .

[61]  K. Atuahene–Gima,et al.  Exploratory and Exploitative Learning in New Product Development: A Social Capital Perspective on New Technology Ventures in China , 2007 .

[62]  G. Day.  The Capabilities of Market-Driven Organizations , 1994 .

[63]  G. Stewart.  A Meta-Analytic Review of Relationships Between Team Design Features and Team Performance , 2006 .

[64]  John C. Narver,et al.  Market Orientation and the Learning Organization , 1995 .

[65]  G. Lynn,et al.  The Role of Personality in New Product Development Team Performance , 2002 .

[66]  Chun-Ju Wang,et al.  Transforming resources to improve performance of technology-based firms: A Taiwanese Empirical Study , 2007 .

[67]  R. Grant.  Toward a Knowledge-Based Theory of the Firm,” Strategic Management Journal (17), pp. , 1996 .

[68]  Philip H. Birnbaum-More,et al.  The Effect of Multiknowledge Individuals on Performance in Cross‐Functional New Product Development Teams* , 2009 .

[69]  Robert E. Ployhart,et al.  Learning by Doing Something Else: Variation, Relatedness, and the Learning Curve , 2003, Manag. Sci..

[70]  Gilbert A. Churchill.  A Paradigm for Developing Better Measures of Marketing Constructs , 1979 .

[71]  C. Argyris.  Reasoning, learning, and action : individual and organizational , 1982 .

[72]  Donald A. Schön,et al.  Organizational Learning: A Theory Of Action Perspective , 1978 .

[73]  Halit Keskin,et al.  New Product Development in Turbulent Environments: Impact of Improvisation and Unlearning on New Product Performance , 2007 .

[74]  I. Nonaka,et al.  Organizational Capabilities in Product Development of Japanese Firms: a Conceptual Framework and Empirical Findings , 1998 .

[75]  C. Fornell,et al.  Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. , 1981 .

[76]  J. March.  Exploration and exploitation in organizational learning , 1991, STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI.

[77]  Richard C. Anderson,et al.  Readings In The Psychology Of Cognition , 1965 .

[78]  Scott B. MacKenzie,et al.  Common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. , 2003, The Journal of applied psychology.

[79]  Shikhar Sarin,et al.  The Effect of Team Leader Characteristics on Learning, Knowledge Application, and Performance of Cross-Functional New Product Development Teams , 2003, Decis. Sci..

[80]  C. Argyris.  On organizational learning , 1993 .

[81]  Subhash Sharma,et al.  Identification and Analysis of Moderator Variables , 1981 .

[82]  A. Chakrabarti,et al.  Speeding Up the Pace of New Product Development , 1999 .

[83]  James C. Anderson,et al.  STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING IN PRACTICE: A REVIEW AND RECOMMENDED TWO-STEP APPROACH , 1988 .

[84]  Ralf Müller,et al.  Absorptive, innovative and adaptive capabilities and their impact on project and project portfolio performance , 2012 .

[85]  G. Hult,et al.  Innovation, Market Orientation, and Organizational Learning: An Integration and Empirical Examination , 1998 .