Search results

We argue that a fundamental issue regarding how to search and how to switch between different cognitive modes lies in the decision rules that influence the dynamics of learning and exploration. We examine the search logics underlying these decision rules and propose conceptual prompts that can be applied mentally or computationally to aid managers’ decision-making.

By applying Multi-Armed Bandit (MAB) modeling to simulate agents’ interaction with dynamic environments, we compared the patterns and performance of selected MAB algorithms under different configurations of environmental conditions.

We develop three conceptual prompts. First, the simple heuristic-based exploration strategy works well in conditions of low environmental variability and few alternatives. Second, an exploration strategy that combines simple and de-biasing heuristics is suitable for most dynamic and complex decision environments. Third, the uncertainty-based exploration strategy is more applicable in the condition of high environmental unpredictability as it can more effectively recognize deviated patterns.

This study contributes to emerging research on using algorithms to develop novel concepts and combining heuristics and algorithmic intelligence in strategic decision-making.

This study offers insights that there are different possibilities for exploration strategies for managers to apply conceptually and that the adaptability of cognitive-distant search may be underestimated in turbulent environments.

Drawing on insights from machine learning and cognitive psychology research, we demonstrate the fitness of different exploration strategies in different dynamic environmental configurations by comparing the different search logics that underlie the three MAB algorithms.

This study aims to analyse the resilience strategy utilized by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), enabling these businesses to effectively adapt their operations in response to varying conditions by providing them with essential resources. SMEs operate in marketplaces that are both dynamic and frequently tumultuous. These markets provide SMEs with a variety of obstacles, including economic ups and downs, advances in technology, evolving customer tastes and new regulatory requirements. SMEs need to create a strategic strategy to survive and grow in such situations. This strategy ought to help strengthen their resiliency and make it possible for them to make the most of emerging opportunities while simultaneously lowering the dangers.

The questionnaires adopted and adapted from previous research served as the basis for gathering the data. The manufacturing industry was polled through the use of questionnaires. To test the hypothesis, the data were analysed using Smart PLS. Through the use of closed-ended questions directed to the proprietors, managers or senior executives of SMEs, data were collected from each and every institution in the sample. Following the examination of the data by means of descriptive analysis and the presentation of several scenarios using information relating to SMEs, the findings were presented.

The ambidextrous strategies that are used by SMEs have a propensity to offer a constructive contribution to SMEs. In this study, it was discovered that ambidexterity, which is defined as the capacity to both seek and capitalise on possibilities, has a significant bearing on the organisational effectiveness of SMEs. The results showed that ambidextrous strategies have a propensity to work as mediators in interactions involving proactive resilience tactics and performance.

The research expands our understanding of how SMEs in the manufacturing sector may improve their performance by concentrating on growing their ambidextrous strategies.

This study provides a plausible explanation of two crucial management mechanisms for enhancing the sustainability of organisational effectiveness. The relationships between ambidextrous capabilities and firm effectiveness are malleable, and this study suggests that nurturing formal and informal relationships may be the key to SMEs' long-term sustainable performance. Improving the knowledge and performance of supply chain systems for SMEs in the manufacturing sector and boosting their competitiveness in domestic and international markets are the practical contributions of this study.

Our comprehension of monitoring, cooperation and innovation within social management was deepened as a result of these facts. In addition, the study conducted in the sector uncovered four essential connections that outline how managers should actively work towards lowering social risks, developing new possibilities and increasing business performance. These capacities and links, when taken as a whole, provide the foundation upon which an integrated framework and five research propositions are built.

This research offers a convincing explanation of fundamental management processes for enhancing the sustainability of organisational effectiveness. This research implies that developing formal and informal interactions may be the key to the sustainable performance of SMEs over the long run. The relationships between ambidextrous capabilities, methods and organisational effectiveness are flexible, and this study also suggests that these relationships may be shaped. The practical contributions made by this research include boosting the understanding and performance of supply chain systems for SMEs as well as the competitive power of these businesses in both local and international markets.

This study aims to investigate how relatively weaker manufacturers respond to the dominance of stronger suppliers and/or customers. The study also analyzes how the competitive intensity perceived by manufacturers moderates their responses to powerful chain partners.

Using hierarchical regression, data from 1,417 manufacturing companies sampled from the fifth and sixth versions of the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey were analyzed.

This study found that relatively weaker manufacturers often adopt exploration strategies to countervail the dominance of suppliers and adopt exploitation strategies to deal with more powerful customers. In dealing with both dominant suppliers and customers, relatively weaker manufacturers are prone to adopt exploration and exploitation strategies simultaneously and hence become ambidextrous. Furthermore, the link between dominance in supply chains and the exploration (exploitation) strategy is strengthened (weakened) as market competition perceived by manufacturers intensifies.

The contribution of this paper is multi-folds. First, this paper develops and test a novel theoretical model on how relatively weaker manufacturers create tailored strategies to defend their positions in the supply chain. Second, it integrates resource dependence theory and organizational learning theory to propose that relatively weaker manufacturers could use a unique configuration of exploration and exploitation strategies to counteract the dominance of their suppliers and customers. Third, it investigates supply chain power by considering the manufacturers’ upstream and downstream powerful partners together, rather than individually and fourth, it reveals that relationships linking supply chain power to manufacturers’ tailored strategies are contingent on competitive intensity.

This study aims to fill three theoretical gaps in previous literature on exploration and exploitation: the relationship between exploration and exploitation is inconclusive; the influences of exploration and exploitation on firm performance are not consistent; and no empirical studies have integrated the antecedents of exploration and exploitation from the different research fields.

The study conducted a meta-analysis to quantitatively synthesize 143 studies with 257 independent samples to understand the relationship between exploration and exploitation and their consequences and antecedents.

The results show that exploration and exploitation are positively correlated with each other, and both of them can boost firm performance. Moreover, firm capabilities, firm size, firm age, competitive intensity, market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation positively influence exploration, and firm resources, firm capabilities, firm size, firm age, market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation positively influence exploitation. Competitive intensity negatively influences exploitation. Surprisingly, market turbulence does not significantly influence exploration or exploitation.

The results not only contribute to the theories by reconciling the inconsistent results but also provide insight for firms with guidance about under what conditions they should use what strategies.

Establishing a competitive advantage in today's dynamic environment involves optimizing an organization's exploration and exploitation strategy. This paper aims to explore how an open innovation strategy complements the organization's ambidextrous strategy in attaining a competitive advantage. Organizational ambidexterity and dynamic capability theories are also explored to investigate the impact of open innovation on the organization's ambidextrous strategy and competitive advantage – especially inbound and outbound open innovation.

The authors conducted a systematic literature review using Boolean search techniques, which was focused on the research fields of the sub-areas of general management, strategy, innovation, organization studies, information management, entrepreneurship, international business, marketing, and economics, supplemented by the snowball technique.

Organizations that combine their ambidextrous strategy with open innovation attributes achieve a competitive advantage through developing their dynamic capabilities by which organizations change their value proposition. This study also shows that an ambidextrous strategy should no longer be viewed as a structural solution implemented by management, but also as a bottom-up intervention. Additionally, the authors found that the organization's dynamic capabilities establish a feedback loop, which changes the organization's ambidextrous strategy to resolve the efficiency–agility paradox.

Previous research has focused on strategic orientation; however, hardly any research has investigated how the interrelatedness of open innovation, organizational ambidexterity and dynamic capabilities support a competitive advantage. The authors present a conceptual model that inspires new research avenues.

This paper aims to analyze unexplored connections between economic, environmental and social dimensions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and knowledge management (KM) strategies (exploration, exploitation), also considering environmental dynamism as an influencing variable on these connections. The predicted CSR-KM interplay suggests, from stakeholder and knowledge-based views of the firm, the existence of ideal configurations between CSR and KM strategies that generate differentiated impacts on companies’ innovation capabilities, especially in dynamic environments.

Structural equation modeling by means of the partial least squares technique was used to test the study’s hypotheses after collecting survey data from Spanish companies of the renewable energy sector.

The study findings show that in highly dynamic environments, companies will tend to commit prominently in CSR, although their orientation (economic, environmental, social) and effects on innovation capabilities will depend mainly on the selected KM strategies. Social and environmental CSR are found to be highly related to KM exploration, whereas economic CSR is highly related to KM exploitation. Nevertheless, while a significant indirect effect of economic CSR by means of the KM exploitation strategy on innovation capabilities is found, the proposed indirect effect of both environmental and social CSR through the KM exploration strategy on innovation capabilities is not significant.

The results suggest that company managers should be aware of the advantages of following specific paths of investment in KM and CSR initiatives in highly dynamic environments, as there is a potential payoff in terms of innovation capability improvement. The results also suggest that “good” relationships with stakeholders, built from specific CSR investments, make firms able to get valuable knowledge that it is useful to develop KM strategies for innovation capability development.

Previous studies do not consider the interplay between KM strategies and CSR as a catalyzer for developing a firm’s innovation capabilities. This paper contributes to the KM and innovation literatures by introducing CSR into the conversation about how to improve innovation capabilities in dynamic and sustainable industries by using configurations of KM strategies and specific CSR investments in economic, social and environmental areas.

This paper aims to explore the complex relationships between knowledge strategies (i.e. exploration and exploitation) and the performance of manufacturing SMEs by testing the mediating role of customer relationship management capabilities, which are defined as a firm’s level of interaction orientation in this study.

Following a hypothetical deductive approach and using data collected from 793 French manufacturing SMEs, the measurement model and relationships among the constructs were examined with structural equation modelling, using the partial least squares approach.

The results support the expected mediating role of interaction orientation between exploitation and performance, and stress a competitive mediating role between exploration and performance. Complementary analyses demonstrate that while both exploration and exploitation are effectively antecedents of interaction orientation, which also acts as a lever to performance, they exhibit specific effects on the different dimensions of interaction orientation.

The results specifically highlight that interaction orientation counterbalances the negative impact of exploration on performance. Moreover, the findings underline the key role that customer interaction processes and tools play in making exploration and exploitation singularly effective. This is a real issue, as SMEs broadly tend to adopt opportunistic tools, not necessarily as part of a clearly defined strategic focus.

This chapter develops a theoretical model using the equifinality perspective to connect multiple systems of HR practices to alternative organizational structure types. We argue that firms following an exploitation strategy maintain competitive advantage through high levels of efficiency and reliability in production and delivery of existing products or services. Firms following an exploration strategy maintain a competitive advantage through continuous innovation and knowledge exchange and combination. Hence, organizations are more likely to successfully execute either strategy by implementing an HR system that would create the organizational structural characteristics that support the workforce requirements of the chosen strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how a company reaches organizational ambidexterity during a merger process. Organizational ambidexterity refers to the proactive adaptations of an organization to simultaneously explore and exploit.

The paper presents a longitudinal case study of a public-private merger of two listed French companies. The data were collected from participant observation, interviews and archival documentation over two years.

The balance between autonomy and control by the parent companies evolves during the post-merger integration. The findings reveal that there was no concordance between the oscillations between autonomy and control on the part of the parent companies and the new organization’s exploration/exploitation strategies. However, the progressive evolution of control and autonomy from the parent companies engendered organizational ambidexterity during the third phase integration.

The study adds insight into how organizations can develop ways to manage organizational ambidexterity dynamics by employing temporal mechanisms, referring to an organization’s shifting sequentially between exploration and exploitation. The case highlights how temporal switching between exploration and exploitation occurs to ultimately enable ambidexterity.

Although organizational ambidexterity is recognized as a key element for post-merger integration, how it is achieved over the course of the merger process has received little attention. The study highlights that in the case of public-private mergers, the parent companies influence exploration and/or exploitation strategies. The paper adds insights on whether exploration and exploitation can be differentiated over time and whether exploration and exploitation can be reconciled at the same time.

Exploratory learning is regarded as an important ability for developing knowledge from open environments. During the exploration, learners not only need to acquire new information based on their current interests, but also they need to form new perspectives by incorporating new knowledge into their previous knowledge. This paper seeks to address these issues.

To this end, this paper proposes an approach that includes a concept association bank to recommend related concepts in a domain based on the goal of an exploration. By doing so, learners' knowledge can be expanded beyond their current understanding. An experiment was conducted to investigate how the proposed approach facilitated the learners' exploration.

The results indicated that the concept association bank is a useful mechanism to help learners gain new understanding, including providing exploration directions, reducing complexity and cognitive load, facilitating data‐ and goal‐driven exploration strategies, and commenting on new understanding. The implications of these results are discussed.

Current recommendation systems emphasise a data‐driven strategy, which seeks isolated pieces of information, instead of suggesting directions related to their exploration goal. The problem with such an approach is that learners' exploration will be limited by their existing knowledge. Thus, this paper presents an approach to support both data‐ and goal‐driven strategies.