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1 – 10 of over 2000
Article
Publication date: 2 May 2018

Daniele Battaglia, Paolo Neirotti and Emilio Paolucci

International sales are critical for the prosperity of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), because of the limited size of their domestic market, but they can be difficult to…

1269

Abstract

Purpose

International sales are critical for the prosperity of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), because of the limited size of their domestic market, but they can be difficult to attain for a number of reasons. The purpose of this paper is to investigate this topic and use a domain ambidexterity framework to analyze why the relationship between research and development (R&D) investments and export initiatives generates managerial tensions in high- and medium-technology industries. In this paper, it is claimed that R&D investments and internationalization can be conflicting objectives that entail a diversity of routines and managerial approaches. This aspect is critical, especially when SMEs are in the early stages of their life cycle and are resource constrained.

Design/methodology/approach

This issue is tested using multiple regressions on data collected through a survey that was conducted in 2014. The sample is composed of 221 SMEs operating in Italy in high-and medium-technology industries.

Findings

The estimates show that combining contemporary high R&D investments and high export activities negatively affects the growth of revenues of SMEs. In detail, when exports over revenue are below 10 percent, R&D investments have a positive effect on revenue growth, whereas when exports over revenue are above 50 percent, the effect of R&D investments on revenue growth is negative. However, age acts as a moderator on this relationship, thus implying that the effect of combining these initiatives varies according to the life cycle of a firm. In particular, combining R&D investments and export generates tensions that limit the growth of revenues in young SMEs (less than ten years old). For firms aged between 10 and 25 years, the effect is positive, while the effect is positive but not statistically significant for mature firms (older than 25 years). These results demonstrate that the diversity of the organizational maturity in SMEs has an impact on their ability to combine activities that require different capabilities (technological vs market).

Originality/value

This paper offers a theoretical contribution to the literature on domain ambidexterity, as it shows that combining contemporary innovation-related activities with international activities may constrain the performance of SMEs, according to the age of the firm. It extends the theoretical framework of domain ambidexterity to international studies and it reconciles previous mixed evidence about the combination of innovation and internationalization activities of SMEs.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 56 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 September 2018

Christopher R. Penney, James G. Combs, Nolan Gaffney and Jennifer C. Sexton

Theory predicts that balancing exploratory and exploitative learning (i.e., ambidexterity) across alliance portfolio domains (e.g. value chain function, governance modes…

Abstract

Purpose

Theory predicts that balancing exploratory and exploitative learning (i.e., ambidexterity) across alliance portfolio domains (e.g. value chain function, governance modes) increases firm performance, whereas balance within domains decreases performance. Prior empirical work, however, only assessed balance/imbalance within and across two domains. The purpose of this study is to determine if theory generalizes beyond specific domain combinations. The authors investigated across multiple domains to determine whether alliance portfolios should be imbalanced toward exploration or exploitation within domains or balanced across domains. The authors also extended prior research by exploring whether the direction of imbalance matters. Current theory only advises managers to accept imbalance without helping with the choice between exploration and exploitation.

Design/methodology/approach

Hypotheses are tested using fixed-effects generalized least squares (GLS) regression analysis of a large 13-year panel sample of Fortune 500 firms from 1996 to 2008.

Findings

With respect to the balance between exploration and exploitation within each of the five domains investigated, imbalanced alliance portfolios had higher firm performance. No evidence was found that balance across domains relates to performance. Instead, for four of the five domains, imbalance toward exploration related positively to firm performance.

Originality/value

An alliance portfolio that allows for exploration in some domains and exploitation in other domains appears more difficult to implement than prior theory suggests. Firms benefit mostly from using the alliance portfolio for exploratory learning.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 24 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 August 2016

Mengling Yan, Yan Yu and Xiaoying Dong

The purpose of this paper is to reveal how organizational learning at the strategic and operational levels (i.e. strategic learning and business learning, respectively) contribute…

1532

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to reveal how organizational learning at the strategic and operational levels (i.e. strategic learning and business learning, respectively) contribute to the development of organizational ambidexterity along the growth of enterprises from an evolutionary view.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted a longitudinal single case study on Huawei – a leading Chinese firm in the telecommunication industry. Data were collected from various sources including interviews, senior speeches, scholarly publications, company magazines and other documents, and was analyzed in line with the principles of grounded theory.

Findings

This research reveals that the case company (Huawei) constructed organizational ambidexterity with different foci during different development stages. The organization’s ambidextrous capability evolves over time, shifting from one domain to another. Such ambidexterity development was largely beneficial from the multilevel organizational learning at both the strategic level (focussing on the whole organization and long-term goals) and operational level (focussing on local interests and short-term goals).

Originality/value

This paper represents one of the earliest works to uncover the ambidexterity building process from an evolutionary approach that requires the collection of longitudinal data. Also, the paper proposes a multi-level learning framework for ambidexterity building in practice. This framework distinguishes strategic learning from business learning and projects the two types of learning into learning at four levels-individual, team, intra-organizational, and inter-organizational, which can be leveraged to guide division of labor among hierarchical levels during the progressive development of ambidexterity.

Details

Information Technology & People, vol. 29 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-3845

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 5 January 2021

Carin Lindskog and Monika Magnusson

The purpose of this study is to apply the concept of organizational ambidexterity as a conceptual lens to increase the understanding of tensions between exploitation (continuity…

2899

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to apply the concept of organizational ambidexterity as a conceptual lens to increase the understanding of tensions between exploitation (continuity) and exploration (change) in Agile software development (ASD) project teams, and particularly the balancing (ambidextrous) strategies utilized.

Design/methodology/approach

A conceptual framework was constructed from interdisciplinary sources on ambidexterity. A literature review of publications on ambidexterity in ASD was then performed, and the results from the selected publications were classified according to an extension of the conceptual framework.

Findings

Contextual ambidexterity in ASD is affected by the four basic coherent concepts: time, task, team and transition. The study found that most ambidextrous factors and strategies were task and team-related. In addition, a mixture of hard (performance) strategies and soft (social) strategies is needed in order for people/teams to (be able to) become ambidextrous.

Practical implications

To provide a better understanding of ASD, it is important to identify a broader set of ambidextrous factors and strategies that can impact ASD project teams. The expanded conceptual framework can serve as a basis for future empirical research and provide insights to practitioners on how to strengthen ambidexterity in ASD projects.

Originality/value

The contribution is of great importance for ASD research and practice, as ASD methods are a popular method for managing projects within ASD and in other nonsoftware organizations. In addition, as more and more organizations struggle to deal with rapidly changing environments, interest in the phenomena of paradoxical tensions and the strategy (ambidexterity) to deal with these tensions increase.

Details

Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, vol. 8 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2051-6614

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 May 2018

Saurav Snehvrat, Amit Kumar, Rahul Kumar and Swarup Dutta

The academic discipline of ambidexterity is recognized as an established field within strategic management and organization theory. Extant works in the field recognize the recent…

Abstract

Purpose

The academic discipline of ambidexterity is recognized as an established field within strategic management and organization theory. Extant works in the field recognize the recent burgeoning academic emphasis on ambidexterity and suggest either an impending focus or a decline of the field. Although there have been attempts to review the field of ambidexterity, most of these reviews have not followed a systematic and scientific approach for extricating the key themes emerging within. The purpose of the study is to inductively and systematically capture the main elements constituting the current boundary of the field.

Design/methodology/approach

To achieve the stated purpose, this study uses data/text mining to analyze abstracts of scholarly ambidexterity papers published over the past two decades (1997-2016) in academic journals. Using text-mining, lexical analysis is performed to compute the frequency distribution of words. The frequently occurring words are studied in detail and their association with ambidexterity is also studied by means of co-relation. This analysis (used for generation of first order themes) is then complemented by a manual analysis of each first order theme to come up with trends and sub-themes lying within.

Findings

The analysis extracts eight distinct themes that indicate the current boundary of ambidexterity research. The findings highlight the potential areas for future academic attention such as networks, business models, leadership, dynamic capability and their inter-linkages with the field of ambidexterity. Overall, the field of ambidexterity is receiving heightened academic interest coupled with a dynamic proliferation across a host of related management fields. Apart from the required future consolidation, the field also needs new insights to enhance its explanatory power.

Research limitations/implications

This study analyzes abstracts of 504 works on ambidexterity (in the last two decades) to inductively indicate the current boundaries of the field using a data/text mining approach. Papers that do not explicitly mention ambidexterity in their abstracts, title or keywords are not included in the analysis.

Practical implications

The insights of the analysis will not only help researchers but also offer practitioners a good view point about the myriad of paths (not restricted to contextual, structural and temporal) through which ambidexterity can be promoted within and at the organization level.

Originality/value

The three-fold contribution of this study is a systematic and scientific approach adopted to define the current boundary of the field of ambidexterity, followed by an exploration of a set of eight distinct themes and finally the identification of ongoing debates, research gaps and future research questions in light of the analysis performed.

Details

International Journal of Organizational Analysis, vol. 26 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1934-8835

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 October 2021

Abhishek Kumar Sinha, Aswini Kumar Mishra, Manogna RL and Rohit Prabhudesai

The objective of the study is to analyse the impact of research and development investment on the firm performance of “small” scale firms vis-a-vis “medium”-scale firms.

Abstract

Purpose

The objective of the study is to analyse the impact of research and development investment on the firm performance of “small” scale firms vis-a-vis “medium”-scale firms.

Design/methodology/approach

The dataset comprised of a balanced panel of 486 research and development conducting Indian manufacturing small and medium enterprises, constructed for the period of 2006–2017. Fixed Effects, Random Effects Model and Hausmann test were used to analyse the determinants of firm performance in manufacturing small and medium enterprises in India.

Findings

It was found that from firms’ research and development (R&D) investments in terms of performance could be attained if simultaneously internationalisation and higher capital intensity could be achieved.

Practical implications

Managers could pay specific attention to the antecedents of firm performance and calibrate their R&D investment, internationalisation efforts and capital intensity simultaneously to achieve higher growth and productivity. For policymakers, the results provide an insight into how the firms in both categories could be differently incentivised, such that resources are better utilised.

Originality/value

The study analysed the determinants of firm performance in small and medium-sized firms at a disaggregate level as well as at a sectoral level using fixed effects, random effects and lagged effects to arrive at novel results, which have important implications for their competitiveness.

Details

International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, vol. 71 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1741-0401

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 April 2022

Vergine Virsta Yassiva, Anjar Priyono and Wisnu Pambudi Wibowo

This study aims to analyse how a hotel company manages ambidexterity when operating different business models in different markets located in the same country.

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to analyse how a hotel company manages ambidexterity when operating different business models in different markets located in the same country.

Design/methodology/approach

This research was conducted using a qualitative case study, and the subjects were selected using the theoretical sampling technique. A corporation managing two hotel business units located in the same city but operating different business models – a premium and a low-cost business model – were selected as subjects.

Findings

The empirical evidence revealed that an ambidextrous business model can be realized through integration or separation of appropriate domains of business activities. The empirical findings further showed that exploitations are easier to integrate than explorations.

Practical implications

The authors found that firms using structural separation for managing premium and low-cost business models can avoid market cannibalism and achieve synergies between different business models if business model ambidexterity is well managed.

Originality/value

This study extends research in the area of ambidexterity and business models. It responds to calls to examine how firms using structural separation implement business model ambidexterity in practice, particularly in service sectors. By analysing the details of activities within the business model, the authors advance the understanding of which domains are suitable for an integration or separation approach.

Details

Journal of Asia Business Studies, vol. 17 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1558-7894

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 June 2019

Jongseon Lee and Nami Kim

This paper aims to examine whether balancing exploration and exploitation rather than emphasizing one over the other leads to better performance. This study also examines the…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine whether balancing exploration and exploitation rather than emphasizing one over the other leads to better performance. This study also examines the effects of different kinds of external collaboration on a firm’s performance in relation to the firm’s current innovative direction that shows firms’ internal weighting of exploration or exploitation.

Design/methodology/approach

Data on Korean manufacturing firms collected from the Korean Innovation Survey were used to test the hypotheses. This study suggested the concept of innovative direction (θ) to examine current innovation capabilities about how much the firms focused on exploration or exploitation. The directionality of exploration or exploitation has not been reflected in previous measures of ambidexterity. Factor analysis and hierarchical regression were used to test hypotheses.

Findings

The findings suggest that balancing exploration and exploitation is beneficial for a firm’s performance, and explorative collaboration is more beneficial for firms internally emphasizing exploitation. However, it showed that for exploration-oriented firms, exploitative collaboration does not supplement exploitative activities.

Research limitations/implications

Inter-organizational collaboration helps to develop ambidexterity that leads to better performance. Because inter-organizational collaboration involves substantial costs and is time-consuming, selecting and maintaining partners has to be conducted carefully. Based on the currently pursuing innovative directions, firms can make more appropriate decision for finding external cooperative partners with much of efficiency. When firms find collaborative partners, it is the first thing to look inside themselves.

Originality/value

Previous studies mainly focused on the selection and balance of the partnership between exploration and exploitation without considering the role of an internal innovative strategy firms are currently pursuing. Identifying firms’ current states and finding partners that can supplement any deficiencies provides the most efficient option for the ambidextrous organization. Consideration of inter-organizational collaborations based on the analysis of internal conditions will be fruitful for the study of ambidexterity.

Details

Management Research Review, vol. 42 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-8269

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 August 2021

Rosamartina Schena, Angeloantonio Russo and Jonatan Pinkse

The purpose of this study is to extend existing knowledge in corporate sustainability (CS) and digitalization literature. Innovation strategies (namely, exploration, exploitation…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to extend existing knowledge in corporate sustainability (CS) and digitalization literature. Innovation strategies (namely, exploration, exploitation and ambidexterity) are used to identify an innovative employee domain that influences a firm’s non-financial performance. Digital reputation – i.e. the set of stakeholders’ sentiments toward the company’s digital footprint – is observed as a moderating variable able to explain where and when the innovative employee domain impacts the non-financial performance.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a sample of firms listed on the Fortune 500 list in the period 2015–2018, this study pursued both a qualitative and quantitative analysis. First, content analysis is carried out through a non-financial report-based operational model to operationalize the innovative domain. Second, a regression and moderator analysis are conducted on optimized panel data.

Findings

Consistent with previous literature, the results show that the employee domain positively impacts a firm’s non-financial performance. It was found that digital reputation operates as a moderator in this relationship.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the theoretical debate on CS by introducing a new concept relevant to an employee domain of exploration, exploitation and ambidexterity. It enriches the innovation debate by providing a new perspective on how firms can balance exploratory and exploitative innovation strategies in the employee domain to enhance non-financial performance. Finally, it provides a novel definition of digital reputation.

Details

Meditari Accountancy Research, vol. 30 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2049-372X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 March 2022

Carolina Rojas-Córdova, Julio A. Pertuze, Amanda Jasmine Williamson and Michael Leatherbee

Environmental uncertainty (EU) and firm size (FS) generate inertial forces that can push small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to emphasize either exploration or exploitation…

Abstract

Purpose

Environmental uncertainty (EU) and firm size (FS) generate inertial forces that can push small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to emphasize either exploration or exploitation. In this article, the authors explore how structural (e.g. formal processes, control and discipline) and social (e.g. employee support and decision-making involvement) managerial instruments counteract such inertial forces and enable SME ambidexterity. Building on the organization-context literature, the authors propose a model in which EU and firms' size moderate the relationship between structural and social managerial instruments on SME ambidexterity.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors examined a moderation model using surveys of chief executive officers (CEOs) and performance archival data from 237 Chilean SMEs.

Findings

The authors find that the positive effect of structure on SME ambidexterity decreases with FS. In contrast, social instruments have a positive effect on ambidexterity for larger firms, especially for those operating in uncertain environments. In cases in which EU and firms' size reinforce the exploration or exploitation tendencies of SMEs, structural and social instruments play a complementary role in achieving ambidexterity.

Originality/value

The authors contribute by proposing a contingent mix of structural and social instruments to enable SME ambidexterity. These results inform policymakers and SME managers by suggesting strategies to promote ambidexterity based on firms' size and EU.

Details

International Journal of Emerging Markets, vol. 18 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-8809

Keywords

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