To read this content please select one of the options below:

Ambidextrous leadership and organizational innovation: the importance of knowledge search and strategic flexibility

Ruiqian Jia (School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, Shanghai, China)
Wenan Hu (Shandong Institute of Talent Development Strategy, Shandong University, Jinan, China)
Shuwen LI (School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, Shanghai, China)

Journal of Knowledge Management

ISSN: 1367-3270

Article publication date: 8 July 2021

Issue publication date: 11 March 2022

2258

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the potential process through which leadership exerts impacts on organizational innovation. A thorough analysis was conducted by highlighting the contribution of ambidextrous leadership to organizational innovation.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from companies located in mainland China. A total of 200 cases were included in the final sample. Hierarchical regression analysis was adopted to test the hypotheses in this study.

Findings

The results showed that exploitation knowledge search and exploration knowledge search partly mediated the relationship between ambidextrous leadership and organizational innovation, respectively. Strategic flexibility could positively moderate the relationship between exploitation knowledge search and organizational innovation and had no significant impacts on moderating the relationship between exploration knowledge search and organizational innovation.

Research limitations/implications

In this study, not only were managers provided with a sophisticated understanding of how and when ambidextrous leadership could influence organizational innovation but also concrete strategies were given for enhancing organizational innovation.

Originality/value

In this study, the interaction among ambidextrous leadership, knowledge search and organizational innovation were elucidated and the moderating impacts of strategic flexibility on the relationship between knowledge search and organizational innovation were explored. The findings of this study enriched the literature on leadership, knowledge management and innovation.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 72002154, 71904147) and the Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education Planning Fund of China (Grant No. 20YJC630042) for their financial support. The three authors contributed to the work equally and should be regarded as co-first authors.

Citation

Jia, R., Hu, W. and LI, S. (2021), "Ambidextrous leadership and organizational innovation: the importance of knowledge search and strategic flexibility", Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 26 No. 3, pp. 781-801. https://doi.org/10.1108/JKM-07-2020-0544

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

Related articles