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1 – 10 of over 2000Mohammad Khalid AlSaied and Abdullah Abdulaziz Alkhoraif
In the era of hyper-competitiveness, firms, especially project-based management structures, have to focus on ideas for both new and existing sets of products and services, i.e…
Abstract
Purpose
In the era of hyper-competitiveness, firms, especially project-based management structures, have to focus on ideas for both new and existing sets of products and services, i.e. ambidextrous innovation. The ambidextrous innovation can be helpful, but achieving such a level is a problem to be solved. This study aims to yield ambidextrous innovation by using innovative culture and knowledge that has been gained from learning.
Design/methodology/approach
The present research collected data from Saudi Arabian public-sector firms. The data collected is analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).
Findings
The findings of the study suggest that a range of factors can be operationalized in project-based firms to establish organizational learning and innovation culture. These factors include agile-based project management, leveraging existing innovative capabilities and growth mindset in case of innovative organizational culture and additional factors of agile-based knowledge management along with others in case of organizational learning. The PLS-SEM further concluded that both organizational learning and innovative organizational culture, in turn, help project-based Saudi Arabian public-sector firms to develop their ambidextrous innovation capability.
Originality/value
The PLS-SEM further concluded that both the organizational learning and innovative organizational culture, in turn, help project-based Saudi Arabian public-sector firms to develop their ambidextrous innovation capability.
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Eric Zabiegalski and Michael John Marquardt
This article couples organizational theory with practice with the union of action learning and the ambidextrous organization. It aims to show how action learning contributes to…
Abstract
Purpose
This article couples organizational theory with practice with the union of action learning and the ambidextrous organization. It aims to show how action learning contributes to the creation and sustainment of an ambidextrous (learning) organization.
Design/methodology/approach
A side-by-side comparison of action learning and the ambidextrous organization was used.
Findings
Action learning “teaches” and promotes the framework and processes of ambidexterity and the practical creation of learning organizations. An action learning team in action performs like an ambidextrous organization to the extent that “acting” is synonymous with exploitation and “learning” with exploration.
Research limitations/implications
Action learning is a powerful tool for the ambidextrous organization, serving as a template for the practitioner to create a learning organization.
Originality/value
This paper extends the literature on organizational structure, leadership, culture and change as it relates to ambidexterity, learning organizations and action learning. It integrates learning theory through action learning with the practice of the ambidextrous organization. A synergistic theory/practice circle is created through the combination of the processes of “theory informing theory” from academia and “practice informing practice” from industry, creating a “theory informing practice and practice validating and updating better theory” circle.
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Zhenkuo Ding, Meijuan Li, Xiaoying Yang and Wanjun Xiao
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how absorptive capacity mediates the relationship between ambidextrous organizational learning and performance among small and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how absorptive capacity mediates the relationship between ambidextrous organizational learning and performance among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the resource-based view (RBV) and the dynamic capability approach, this paper uses the resource-capability-performance framework to construct the theoretical model of this study and tests the theoretical model with the questionnaire survey data of 189 SMEs in mainland China.
Findings
Ambidextrous organizational learning has different effects on SMEs' performance in terms of survival performance and growth performance. Both exploitative learning and exploratory learning have positive effects on absorptive capacity, and absorptive capacity has positive influences on both the survival performance and growth performance of SMEs. Absorptive capacity plays different mediating roles in the relationships between ambidextrous organizational learning and SMEs' performance: absorptive capacity plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between exploratory learning and SME growth performance, while absorptive capacity plays complete mediating roles in other relationships.
Practical implications
Managers must stress the use of exploratory learning in order to promote SMEs' growth performance. However, to foster both absorptive capacity and SME performance in terms of survival and growth, managers must pay more attention to take advantage of ambidextrous organizational learning. Government as policymakers should create a favorable environment that enable SMEs to benefit much more from the deployment of ambidextrous organizational learning and absorptive capacity.
Originality/value
To the best of authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to theorize and test the mediating role of absorptive capacity in the linkage between ambidextrous organizational learning and SME performance in terms of survival and growth. Additionally, this study also is the first to provide empirical support for the impact of ambidextrous organizational learning on absorptive capacity among SMEs.
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Cheng‐Yu Lee and Yen‐Chih Huang
This study aims to examine the relationships among knowledge stock, ambidextrous learning, and firm performance while considering the moderating effect of firm size.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the relationships among knowledge stock, ambidextrous learning, and firm performance while considering the moderating effect of firm size.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses R&D scoreboard database to produce a sample of 312 firms which operate in technologically intensive industries. To test the research hypotheses, regression analysis is employed.
Findings
The major findings are: the positive performance implications of ambidextrous learning; knowledge stock as an antecedent of ambidextrous learning; the mediating role of ambidextrous learning; and firm size as a contingency factor that strengthens the influence of ambidextrous learning on firm performance.
Research limitations/implications
Owing to the scope of the research, only patent data were used to measure knowledge stock and ambidextrous learning. However, the measurement of these variables may have been influenced by the availability of patent information.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that realizing superior performance is dependent on a firm's accumulated knowledge stock and its ability to balance exploratory and exploitative learning. Large firms extract more value from ambidextrous learning than small firms.
Originality/value
This study is the first to identify the mediating role of ambidextrous learning in the relationship between knowledge stock and firm performance and to confirm that firm size moderates the relationship between ambidextrous learning and firm performance. The value of this study lies in developing a model of ambidextrous learning that includes both mediating and moderating variables.
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Jing-Wen Huang and Yong-Hui Li
Learning orientation is critical in new product development. However, research has disregarded how learning orientation operates via the potential mediator to influence new…
Abstract
Purpose
Learning orientation is critical in new product development. However, research has disregarded how learning orientation operates via the potential mediator to influence new product performance. The purpose of this study is to examine the mediating role of ambidextrous capability in the relationship between learning orientation and new product performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical study uses a questionnaire approach designed to collect data for testing research hypotheses. This study tests the hypotheses using structural equation model in a sample of 336 firms in Taiwan.
Findings
The findings indicate that learning orientation relates positively to ambidextrous capability and new product performance. Ambidextrous capability, in turn, relates positively to new product performance. The results also support the argument that ambidextrous capability plays a mediating role in learning orientation and new product performance.
Originality/value
The value of this study is to identify ambidextrous capability as the potential mediator in the relationship between learning orientation and new product performance. The results enrich the understanding of learning orientation in new product project teams and suggest important implications for new product development and future research.
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The purpose of this paper is to address the theoretical gap between design thinking (DT) and management. DT is a strategic concept in the current business world whereas the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to address the theoretical gap between design thinking (DT) and management. DT is a strategic concept in the current business world whereas the discussion of it is still insufficient. Ambidexterity could be a promising concept to explain the benefits of DT in the realm of management and strategy.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper conducts a thorough literature review and theoretical analysis, and offers propositions that engage the outcome of DT and the ambidextrous learning and innovation.
Findings
The author suggests the connection between DT and ambidexterity. By thoroughly discussing the effect of the traits of DT on ambidexterity, the author proposes that DT can facilitate ambidextrous learning, and ambidextrous learning could mediate the relationships between DT and ambidextrous innovation.
Research limitations/implications
This paper offers a preliminary ground for the operationalization of it. Besides, ambidexterity could provide a lens to discuss DT with other strategic concept. Furthermore, the discussion extends understanding of the pursuit of individual ambidexterity.
Practical implications
This paper provides a clearer reason for managers to adopt DT. Furthermore, it might facilitate the management education in management schools to incorporate DT as a section topic, and subsequently propagate education of DT in management schools.
Originality/value
The paper offers a theoretical platform for the study of DT in the field of management and strategy, which was rare before. The integration of DT and ambidexterity offers a decision support to the managers. Furthermore, it serves as a new approach to obtain ambidexterity in organization, which addresses the call of the research on the micro-foundations of management.
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Sanaz Hadji, Peyman Gholizadeh and Neda Naghavi
With drastic changes in the external environment, many organizations today cannot continue their activities and create sustainability in achieving long-term goals without having…
Abstract
Purpose
With drastic changes in the external environment, many organizations today cannot continue their activities and create sustainability in achieving long-term goals without having carefully designed and coordinated systems with each other. The human resource performance management system is considered as one of the most important process pillars of any organization that without any specific strategic mechanism, such as inclusive learning, faces challenges and harmful conflicts. The purpose of this study is to diagnose human resource performance management based on the lack of ambidextrous learning themes in the banking system.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, theoretical screening based on similar research was used to identify the components (diagnosing of human resource performance management) and research propositions (ambidextrous learning themes). Then, Delphi analysis was used to determine the reliability of research components and propositions by the participation of 13 management specialists and experts. In the quantitative part, the components and propositions identified in the form of matrix questionnaires were evaluated by interpretive analysis by 18 managers of banking system.
Findings
The results showed that the proposition of lack of strategic tendencies in learning is considered as the most effective theme of ambidextrous learning in reinforcing the damage of strategic incompatibility in the performance functions of human resource management (HRM).
Originality/value
This result shows that the lack of strategic orientations due to the ineffectiveness in identifying environmental capacities in the banking system in the field of HRM performance is a new challenge.
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Annika Engström, Nikolas Käkelä and Joakim Wikner
The purpose of the paper is to describe ambidextrous learning in organizations within the customer order-based context (COBC), here based on a dynamic view of work processes. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to describe ambidextrous learning in organizations within the customer order-based context (COBC), here based on a dynamic view of work processes. The study focuses on how organizations can learn while working with customer orders, considering learning in organizations as both a process and an outcome.
Design/methodology/approach
This conceptual article focuses on learning in the COBC, where the individual customer requirements represent a key input into the organization’s work processes, thus limiting the possibilities to plan and standardize. The COBC brings about challenges and potentials for learning in organizations where task variety and complexity are high and in which the contradictory interplay between efficiency and responsiveness is apparent not only at a strategic level but also at an operative level in the customer order fulfillment processes. Depending on the variations in tasks and parallel complex work processes between different units in the organization, the ambidextrous learning dynamic can appear in the COBC.
Findings
Five propositions were made from the analysis: Proposition 1: Learning in the COBC can occur both in real-time but also in retrospect and with sporadic and recurrent interventions. Proposition 2: Learning in the COBC can occur for, as well as from, customer order processes. Proposition 3: Learning in the COBC varies and will depend on the delivery strategy. Proposition 4: Learning can be stimulated by the variation in priorities among customer orders in the COBC because the work characteristics for the back office and front office differ between customer order fulfillment processes. Proposition 5: Learning in the COBC can occur both within the back office and front office but also between these organizational units. The paper discusses the importance of building learning infrastructure in COBC and how that can be supported by a suggested learning office.
Originality/value
The present study demonstrates the importance of functions being able to act both as back office and front office in relation to delivery strategy. It also shows the ambidextrous learning process for the sake of improving both the internal efficiency and external effectiveness across the organization.
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Rebecca M. Guidice, Joyce Thompson Heames and Sheng Wang
The purpose of this paper is to conceptually demonstrate that the relationship between turnover and innovation is not direct as some research suggests, but rather indirect, with…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to conceptually demonstrate that the relationship between turnover and innovation is not direct as some research suggests, but rather indirect, with organizational learning as the prerequisite social mechanism that ties the two phenomena together.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper integrates research across a number of related areas to develop a model of the immediate and indirect organizational consequences of different rates of knowledge worker turnover.
Findings
The paper finds that certain conditions and mechanisms must first be in place to pave the way to innovation. Grounded in social capital theory, this paper describes how turnover rates and organizational learning can be curvilinearly related with respect to ambidextrous learning; how betweenness centrality and learning culture can moderate this relationship; and why organizational learning should mediate the turnover‐innovation relationship.
Research limitations/implications
Faulty decisions based on simplified beliefs place organizational performance in a precarious position. Studies must consider how changes in personnel affect activities where interpersonal relationships are critical. Turnover that beneficially breathes diversity, critical evaluation, and creativity should result in benefits that more than offset its costs.
Originality/value
By taking an in‐depth look at previously disconnected research, the paper offers a unified model that more accurately depicts the processes and outcomes that intercede and explain how knowledge worker turnover rates come to influence innovation.
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This study seeks to provide a narrative literature review of existing empirical research, in order to better understand the processes and theory of ambidextrous leadership, as…
Abstract
Purpose
This study seeks to provide a narrative literature review of existing empirical research, in order to better understand the processes and theory of ambidextrous leadership, as well as its influence on followers, employees and organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from 26 studies were extracted and synthesied providing a critical discussion about the methodological and theoretical aspects of the studies identified in the review.
Findings
It was revealed the attributes for an effective ambidextrous leader, it was presented the recently proposed concept of ambidextrous leadership theory and it was noticed the main criticisms against the findings of the extant ambidextrous leadership literature. It was also identified many research gaps in the literature which in turn can guide academics in the development of ambidextrous leadership.
Research limitations/implications
The ambidextrous leadership theory represents a novel and unique approach to the domain of leadership for creativity and innovation. It is shared across hierarchical levels throughout the organization. Leaders have a significant effect on employees' behaviors and should determine its applicability to different situations. Organizations require ambidextrous managers who combine flexible, situational and versatile leadership styles developing ever increasingly new and divergent ideas. Many research gaps in the literature were also identified that can guide academics in the development of ambidextrous leadership.
Practical implications
Understanding that ambidextrous leadership is required to significantly influence ambidexterity and innovation allows organizations to direct their leadership selection and development.
Originality/value
This review contributes to the ambidextrous leadership literature by creating a holistic picture of where it has been and where it should go.
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