Learning to Innovate: How Does Ambidextrous Learning Matter to Radical and Incremental Innovation Capabilities?

The notion that ambidextrous learning will improve firm performance and survival has become prominent in the organizational learning literature. Arguing that innovation capabilities are central to the ambidexterity hypothesis, we investigate how the two dimensions of ambidextrous learning (synergy and balance) affect firms? incremental and radical innovation capabilities. Based on organizational learning theory and the dominant logic literature, we develop the theoretical arguments that the synergy of ambidexterity drives incremental innovation capability and the balance dimension of ambidexterity influences radical innovation capability. We conjecture that also there is an interaction effect between synergy and balance on both radical and incremental innovation capabilities. We base our empirical analysis on a survey of a wide range of high-tech firms in China. We find broad support for our theoretical arguments.

[1]  Haiyang Li,et al.  Product Innovation Strategy and the Performance of New Technology Ventures in China , 2001 .

[2]  Wendy K. Smith,et al.  Organizational designs and innovation streams , 2010 .

[3]  J. March.  The Business Firm as a Political Coalition , 1962, The Journal of Politics.

[4]  Daniel A. Levinthal,et al.  Exploration and Exploitation in Organizational Learning , 2007 .

[5]  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.

[6]  Bernard J. Jaworski,et al.  Market orientation: Antecedents and consequences , 1993 .

[7]  J. Birkinshaw,et al.  Organizational Ambidexterity: Antecedents, Outcomes, and Moderators , 2008 .

[8]  M. Lubatkin,et al.  Ambidexterity and Performance in Small-to Medium-Sized Firms: The Pivotal Role of Top Management Team Behavioral Integration , 2006 .

[9]  Constance E. Helfat,et al.  Organizational Linkages for Surviving Technological Change: Complementary Assets, Middle Management, and Ambidexterity , 2008, Organ. Sci..

[10]  R. Calantone,et al.  The Impact of Market Knowledge Competence on New Product Advantage: Conceptualization and Empirical Examination , 1998 .

[11]  Daniel A. Levinthal,et al.  ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON LEARNING AND INNOVATION , 1990 .

[12]  C. Gilbert.  Unbundling the Structure of Inertia: Resource Versus Routine Rigidity , 2005 .

[13]  Clayton M. Christensen.  The Innovator's Dilemma , 1997 .

[14]  Clayton M. Christensen.  The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail , 2013 .

[15]  G. Lantos,et al.  Resolving the Capability–Rigidity Paradox in New Product Innovation , 2006 .

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

[17]  Atul Nerkar,et al.  Old Is Gold? The Value of Temporal Exploration in the Creation of New Knowledge , 2003, Manag. Sci..

[18]  S. Zahra,et al.  Sources of capabilities, integration and technology commercialization , 2002 .

[19]  K. Atuahene–Gima,et al.  Market Knowledge Dimensions and Cross-Functional Collaboration: Examining the Different Routes to Product Innovation Performance , 2007 .

[20]  M. Tushman,et al.  Technological Discontinuities and Organizational Environments , 1986 .

[21]  Subodh P. Kulkarni,et al.  Winning through Innovation: A Practical Guide to Leading Organizational Change and Renewal , 1998 .

[22]  Jacob Cohen,et al.  Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences , 1979 .

[23]  Rolph E. Anderson,et al.  Multivariate Data Analysis with Readings , 1979 .

[24]  Haiyang Li,et al.  When Does Trust Matter? Antecedents and Contingent Effects of Supervisee Trust on Performance in Selling New Products in China and the United States , 2002 .

[25]  M. Tushman,et al.  Ambidextrous Organizations: Managing Evolutionary and Revolutionary Change , 1996 .

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

[27]  James C. Anderson,et al.  Some Methods for Respecifying Measurement Models to Obtain Unidimensional Construct Measurement , 1982 .

[28]  F. Damanpour.  Organizational Innovation: A Meta-Analysis Of Effects Of Determinants and Moderators , 1991 .

[29]  R. Katila,et al.  SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF SEARCH BEHAVIOR AND NEW PRODUCT INTRODUCTION , 2002 .

[30]  Henk W. Volberda,et al.  Structural Differentiation and Ambidexterity: The Mediating Role of Integration Mechanisms , 2008, Organ. Sci..

[31]  Kevin Zheng Zhou,et al.  How knowledge affects radical innovation: Knowledge base, market knowledge acquisition, and internal knowledge sharing , 2012 .

[32]  Wendy K. Smith,et al.  A Structural Approach to Assessing Innovation: Construct Development of Innovation Locus, Type, and Characteristics , 2002, Manag. Sci..

[33]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[34]  D. Teece.  Profiting from technological innovation: Implications for integration, collaboration, licensing and public policy , 1993 .

[35]  R. Chandy,et al.  Organizing for Radical Product Innovation: The Overlooked Role of Willingness to Cannibalize , 1998 .

[36]  Julian Birkinshaw,et al.  Organizational Ambidexterity: Balancing Exploitation and Exploration for Sustained Performance , 2009, Organ. Sci..

[37]  TaylorAlva,et al.  Organizational Linkages for Surviving Technological Change , 2009 .

[38]  Richard S. Rosenbloom,et al.  Managerial Commitments and Technological Change in the US Tire Industry , 1997 .

[39]  D. Leonard-Barton.  CORE CAPABILITIES AND CORE RIGIDITIES: A PARADOX IN MANAGING NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT , 1992 .

[40]  Mary Tripsas,et al.  Surviving Radical Technological Change through Dynamic Capability: Evidence from the Typesetter Industry , 1997 .

[41]  G. Dosi.  Sources, Procedures, and Microeconomic Effects of Innovation , 1988 .

[42]  Laura B. Cardinal.  Technological Innovation in the Pharmaceutical Industry: The Use of Organizational Control in Managing Research and Development , 2001 .

[43]  Zeki Simsek,et al.  Modelling the Joint Impact of the CEO and the TMT on Organizational Ambidexterity , 2009 .

[44]  Wendy K. Smith,et al.  Managing Strategic Contradictions: A Top Management Model for Managing Innovation Streams , 2005 .

[45]  D. Teece.  Profiting from technological innovation: Implications for integration, collaboration, licensing and public policy , 1993 .

[46]  Mohan Subramaniam,et al.  The Influence of Intellectual Capital on the Types of Innovative Capabilities , 2005 .

[47]  Irem Demirkan,et al.  The Performance Consequences of Ambidexterity in Strategic Alliance Formations: Empirical Investigation and Computational Theorizing , 2007, Manag. Sci..

[48]  Clayton M. Christensen,et al.  CUSTOMER POWER, STRATEGIC INVESTMENT, AND THE FAILURE OF LEADING FIRMS , 1996 .

[49]  W. Vanhaverbeke,et al.  Exploration and Exploitation in Innovation: Reframing the Interpretation , 2008 .

[50]  M. Tushman,et al.  The ambidextrous organization. , 2004, Harvard business review.

[51]  A. Salter,et al.  Open for innovation: the role of openness in explaining innovation performance among U.K. manufacturing firms , 2006 .

[52]  J. Dutton,et al.  The Adoption of Radical and Incremental Innovations: An Empirical Analysis , 1986 .

[53]  Frank T. Rothaermel,et al.  Ambidexterity in Technology Sourcing: The Moderating Role of Absorptive Capacity , 2009, Organ. Sci..

[54]  A. Joshi,et al.  Customer Knowledge Development: Antecedents and Impact on New Product Performance , 2004 .

[55]  M. Tushman,et al.  Exploration and Exploitation Within and Across Organizations , 2010 .

[56]  M. Hitt,et al.  International expansion by new venture firms: International diversity, mode of market entry, technological learning, and performance. , 2000 .

[57]  Justin J. P. Jansen,et al.  Ambidexterity and performance in multiunit contexts: Cross‐level moderating effects of structural and resource attributes , 2012 .

[58]  Giovanni Gavetti,et al.  Capabilities, cognition, and inertia: evidence from digital imaging , 2000 .

[59]  C. K. Prahalad,et al.  THE DOMINANT LOGIC: RETROSPECTIVE AND EXTENSION , 1995 .

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

[61]  Mary J. Benner,et al.  Exploitation, Exploration, and Process Management: The Productivity Dilemma Revisited , 2003 .

[62]  Qing Cao,et al.  Unpacking Organizational Ambidexterity: Dimensions, Contingencies, and Synergistic Effects , 2009, Organ. Sci..

[63]  C. Prahalad,et al.  The dominant logic: A new linkage between diversity and performance , 1986 .

[64]  C. Coulton,et al.  Interaction Effects in Multiple Regression , 1993 .

[65]  Henk W. Volberda,et al.  Exploratory Innovation, Exploitative Innovation and Peformance: Effects of Organizational Antecedents and Environmental Moderators , 2006, Manag. Sci..

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

[67]  C. Gibson,et al.  THE ANTECEDENTS , CONSEQUENCES , AND MEDIATING ROLE OF ORGANIZATIONAL AMBIDEXTERITY , 2004 .

[68]  J. Sinacore.  Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions , 1993 .

[69]  Kevin Zheng Zhou,et al.  Market orientation, job satisfaction, product quality, and firm performance: Evidence from China , 2008 .

[70]  K. Zhou,et al.  Technological capability, strategic flexibility, and product innovation , 2009 .

[71]  Anne S. Miner,et al.  The Impact of Organizational Memory on New Product Performance and Creativity , 1997 .