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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the individual effects of boundary-spanning search from suppliers (supplier-side search (SS)). It is proposed that SS contributes to innovation ambidexterity (IA) and then business performance (BP). Further, this paper includes buyer–supplier relationships (BSRs) and competitive intensity (CI) as moderators to clarify boundary conditions.

An ordinary least squares regression was employed to test hypotheses, based on 184 sets of data from Hong Kong manufacturing firms. The SPSS version of PROCESS was utilized.

The results show that IA partially mediates the relationship between SS and BP. Contingently, the direct effect is negatively moderated by BSRs and CI.

This paper confirms the partial mediating effect of IA on the relationship between SS and BP. Additional mediators, such as organizational innovation and marketing innovation, can be examined in the future.

This paper contributes to practice by suggesting that suppliers are a rewarding single source for firms to undertake boundary-spanning search. IA plays a significant role in reinforcing the effects of SS on BP and should be implemented with sustaining efforts. BSRs and CI can be detrimental and should be responded to cautiously.

This paper highlights the individual effects of SS on BP. Furthermore, the underlying process and boundary conditions are analyzed. The exploitation-exploration framework is applied throughout the entire study.

The purpose of this paper is to offer an alternative framework and solution for balancing exploitation–exploration tensions and their management.

A case study method was adopted to uncover what underlies tensions and contradictions between exploitation–exploration that emerge for Chinese manufacturing companies due to the competitive global environment and their latecomer disadvantages when they source new technologies by cross-border mergers and acquisitions. The acquiring firm that acquires two companies is thus not a single but a cross-case study.

The authors present three contradictory points needing to be balanced and according to which three paradoxes emerge: exploitation from a similar knowledge base and innovation from a complementary knowledge base, efficiency and flexibility, as well as profit and breakthroughs. The authors theorize how paradoxical integration helps manage these interwoven tensions. Further, the assimilate-integration-apply (AIA) path suggests a new behavior logic and path choice for Chinese companies when they follow an ambidextrous strategy.

This paper has implications for future research and for companies’ everyday practice on ambidexterity in Chinese society.

The authors combine ambidexterity perspective and AIA path with linkage-leverage-learning (LLL) to offer an alternative framework and solution for balancing exploitation–exploration paradoxes in EE firms’ internationalization to increase LLL’s explanatory power.

The purpose of this paper is to explain how leaders balance exploitation (incremental innovation) and exploration (discontinuous innovation).

A qualitative study with 11 senior leaders in Australian Defence Force.

The study identifies a number of factors that leaders take into account when deciding whether to focus on exploitation or on exploration.

The study concludes that transactional leadership is appropriate in the context of exploitation, while transformational leadership is appropriate in the context of exploration.

Organizational learning is a critical factor in generating firm innovation. While the firms are working with global business partners, not only does their absorptive learning capacity (ALC) with business partners play an important role in generating innovation from the inter-partner firm relationship, but their joint learning capacity (JLC) does as well. However, little research has simultaneously examined absorptive and JLC on innovation in global supply chain relationships. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Drawing on the knowledge-based view, inter-partner learning theory and resource dependence theory, the current study investigates the effects of two organizational learning capacities on relationship-specific innovation: ALC (firm-level) and JLC (relationship level). In addition, a firm’s focus on exploitation/exploration strategy and supplier dependence is further incorporated into the study as moderators. Moreover, solutions to endogeneity issues are discussed and reported due to the usage of survey data. The model of this study was tested using data collected from 190 electronics firms in Taiwan as an emerging market.

The findings of this research reveal that JLC in the presence of absorptive capacity positively influences relationship-specific innovation. Furthermore, the exploitation focus of a firm positively moderates the effects of both absorptive and JLC on relationship-specific innovation. However, supplier dependence negatively moderates the effect of JLC.

The research provides some theoretical implications for learning and innovation generation in global supply chains.

The paper provides some managerial implications for how to manage innovations in the global supply chain relationships.

This paper fulfills an identified need to study how innovation generation can be better managed in global supply chain contexts.

This paper aims to develop a conceptual taxonomy for building requisite knowledge capabilities for different supply chain network (SCN) types. Specifically, it examines knowledge capabilities required for three types of SCNs: efficient, collaborative and agile SCNs.

This paper integrates two bodies of thought (i.e. knowledge management and organisational learning) and applies them to SCNs. An abductive research process is used to develop this conceptual taxonomy.

The conceptual taxonomy details three archetypical knowledge capabilities – exploitation, exploration and ambidextrous. Those knowledge capabilities are required for efficient, collaborative and agile SCNs, respectively.

This paper is conceptual and theory-based. The next stages of the research seek to further strengthen the explanatory value of the taxonomy through empirical validation.

The taxonomy developed in this paper provides a valuable and pragmatic tool for managerial decision-making in the context of SCNs. Specifically, it provides a roadmap for practitioners since the study develops an understanding of the relationship between knowledge capabilities and types of SCNs.

This is one of the earliest studies that attempt to unearth requisite knowledge capabilities for different types of SCNs.

The central concern of organizational learning and corporate strategy has, in recent decades, focused on the rational choice and appropriate balance between exploration and exploitation. Dividing mergers and acquisitions (M&As) into related and unrelated M&As, this study applies the exploration vs exploitation construct to examine how different M&A strategies affect exploration and exploitation of the combined firm, how post-acquisition integration affects exploration and exploitation of the combined firm, and how organizational ambidexterity affects post-acquisition performance. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Organizational and industry level data were drawn from the top 1,000 Taiwanese electronic and computer firms reported by 2009 China Credit Information Service, an authorized credit-rating company in Taiwan. The companies are classified into four industries: computer and associated equipments manufacturing (SICs 271x, 274x, 276x); integrated circuits (SIC 261x), opto-electronics and telecommunication (SICs 264x, 272x, 277x) and electronic components (SICs 262x, 263x, 264x, 269x, 275x). Questionnaires were distributed to general managers of the top 1,000 electronics companies.

This investigation of Taiwanese electronic and computer firms revealed that related acquisitions with high degrees of acquisition integration positively affect the combined firm's exploitation; unrelated acquisitions with high degrees of R&D expenditure and acquisition experience positively affect the combined firm's exploration. The firm's ability of simultaneously pursuing exploitation and exploration positively affects its post-acquisition performance.

The contribution of this study is to understand how acquisitions influence exploitation and exploration. With regard to the relationship between acquisition and exploitation/exploration, this study finds that unrelated acquisitions enhance exploration, whereas related acquisitions enhance exploitation.

Ambidexterity is the ability of an organization to balance exploitation and exploration. Ambidextrous organizations perform better in managing productivity-innovation dilemma. Although the literature on ambidexterity has expanded, much less attention has been paid to the antecedents of ambidexterity. The purpose of this paper is to explore the antecedents of ambidexterity and develop a multi-level taxonomy of the antecedents.

Based on an extensive review of the literature, the paper develops criteria for categorizing the antecedents and then develops a taxonomy of the antecedents.

Two taxonomy frameworks have been developed: one is based on infrastructural elements, including organizational structures, processes, and context, while the other is based on different organizational levels (i.e. organizational, group, and individual) at which different antecedents exist. Most of the antecedents of ambidexterity reported in the literature fall in the category of “processes” – both individual/social and technical/procedural.

The paper provides an enhanced understanding of the antecedents of ambidexterity, how they relate to each other, and how they can be grouped together. The framework can help managers to apply the antecedents at various organizational levels, resulting in a more structured approach to ambidexterity.

The key contribution of the paper is in providing a multi-level understanding of the antecedents of ambidexterity. To the best of the author’s knowledge, such a taxonomy of the antecedents of ambidexterity has not been provided in previous publications.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the multi-level ambidexterity challenges through the metaroutine lens. Further, while confronting the ambidexterity challenges, it is found that what is paradox at one level can be understood as tradeoffs at another level. This study uses an in-depth multi-level case study of Tata Motors, an Indian automotive giant highlighting the ambidexterity dynamics across strategic, business unit and functional levels to demonstrate that paradoxes at the strategic level are converted to manageable tradeoffs at the business unit/ operational level. Also, metaroutine-enabled ambidexterity explains a possible way through which multi-level ambidexterity can be promoted and managed within organizations.

This study uses a case-based methodology (Eisenhardt, 1989) similar to the approach of Adler et al. (1999). The field research consisted of in-depth interviews, which focus on gathering information from the key involved members in the field, thus enabling us to understand how multi-level ambidexterity is promoted within Tata Motors. A semi-structured interview guide was used to collect data for this study.

The metaroutine lens offers an alternative route to explain the multi-level ambidexterity dynamics at Tata Motors. The ambidexterity questions at different levels in Tata Motors seem to be a mixture of paradoxes and tradeoffs. However, a key trend emerges. At the strategic and business unit level, the firm wanted to exploit their existing products and explore new customer segments. At the product level, the strategic and NPI core team wanted to best combine the customer centric explorations with exploitations resulting in cost savings. The ambidexterity questions at these two levels seem to be paradoxes. However, as the authors analyze the functional domains, it appears that each individual domain was working under increased constraints. Hence, the ambidexterity questions at the domain level seem to be a tradeoff based on the constraints faced by individual functional domains.

This study presents an in-depth multi-level case study of an Indian automotive giant, Tata Motors. The authors present the role of metaroutines in shaping the ambidexterity issues during the development of passenger vehicles. This study builds on the seminal work of Adler et al., 1999, and extends the discussion to the framing of the ambidexterity question as a paradox and/or a tradeoff. The core argument of this paper is that balancing opposite polarities in business models is basically a paradoxical issue in the exploitation/ exploration relationship.

The present manuscript assesses how firms should manage frequent supply chain disruption triggers and whether these firms should use existing supply chain competencies, develop new ones or both to mitigate any adverse consequences on financial performance.

Data for the study come from a survey administered to professionals in India. India was an appropriate base for the study because of its developing economy and businesses often facing SC disruptions in the marketplace.

The findings show that the negative association between the frequency of supply chain disruption triggers and financial performance is weaker when a firm utilizes supply chain exploitation competencies. Conversely, the negative association between the frequency of supply chain disruption triggers and financial performance becomes stronger when using supply chain exploration competencies. Most significantly, however, the authors show that a strategy of supply chain ambidexterity – one that combines both exploitation and exploration practices – is more beneficial in mitigating the impact of frequent disruption triggers on firm financial performance compared to the other strategies.

These findings contribute to the literature, extending the benefits of ambidexterity beyond domains of innovation, manufacturing flexibility, competitiveness and firm performance to include mitigation of supply chain disruptions.

Prior studies on major customer relationships (i.e. embedded ties) focus mostly on the ties between a focal firm and its immediate customers, hindering the understanding of the influence of indirect ties (both upstream and downstream) on a focal firm's operational performance. In this study, the authors analyze how a focal firm's upstream and downstream connectedness and network location affect its productive efficiency.

Utilizing Compustat segment files, the authors constructed large-scale major customer networks covering the period 2007–2013. The authors applied a fixed-effect panel stochastic frontier model to conduct estimation. Moreover, the authors applied an endogenous panel stochastic frontier model to ensure the robustness of the main analysis.

The authors found that a focal firm's upstream and downstream connectedness both have a positive influence on a firm's productive efficiency, whereas a focal firm's centeredness in the major customer network has a negative influence on productive efficiency. Moreover, it was found that centeredness lessens the positive influences of upstream and downstream connectedness on productive efficiency. The post hoc analysis further confirmed that a focal firm's indirect ties, both upstream and downstream, positively influence a focal firm's productive efficiency.

This study contributes to the literature by evaluating the relative effectiveness of a focal firm's direct and indirect major customer ties, both upstream and downstream. More importantly, this study suggests potential exploitation–exploration trade-offs (i.e. productive efficiency vs. innovation) triggered by a firm's network location.