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Organizational incentives and structures play a crucial role in realizing explorative and exploitative innovations in firms. Existing studies have neglected the role of trade-off mechanisms between the two on innovation ambidexterity. This study aims to investigate these trade-off mechanisms and their position on innovation ambidexterity.

Given the limited theoretical understanding, the authors conducted a case study with a sample of two Chinese firms with abundant interview and secondary data.

The results show that firms can develop innovation ambidexterity at two levels, namely, the time and space levels, using incentive synergy as well as organizational structures. Furthermore, the authors explain the role of the trade-off between incentive synergy and organizational structure in promoting a balance between explorative and exploitative innovation.

The authors propose trade-off mechanisms between incentive synergy and organizational structure and explore how trade-off mechanisms can play a role in promoting a balance of explorative and exploitative innovation at both time and space levels.

The purpose of the study was to analyse the impact of innovation ambidexterity represented by explorative and exploitative innovation capabilities and their combined effects on product innovation performance and to prove the mediating effect of decentralization.

The study uses partial least squares for structural equation models and SmartPLS version 3.3.1 on a sample of 174 Romanian medium- and large-sized firms from the IT industry to test six research hypotheses. To measure innovation ambidexterity, the orthogonal approach was used, conceptualizing innovation ambidexterity as a multidimensional, second-order construct composed of explorative and exploitative innovation capabilities. Innovation ambidexterity was conceptualized as a multiplicative term of both explorative and exploitative innovation capabilities.

The empirical results prove that innovation ambidexterity is positively correlated with product innovation performance, while decentralization is mediating the impact of innovation ambidexterity on product innovation performance in the IT industry.

The data was based on self-reported assessments of senior executives. While innovation ambidexterity may influence product innovation performance in the long term, such long-term effects are not assessed. Other studies found a moderating effect between centralization or decentralization and ambidexterity, while we found that it has a mediating effect.

In the context of innovation capability, the combination of explorative or exploitative capabilities may lead to a better synergy. Innovation ambidexterity influences product innovation performance through a synergistic effect, making the simultaneous combination of capabilities useful for firms willing to make efficient use of existing resources and make their capabilities mutually supportive. Moreover, for senior executives, the effects of decentralization as a mediator provide further incentive to include it in their development of firms' innovation capabilities.

This study extends findings of other studies by contributing to a deeper examination of the effects of decentralization, on innovation outcomes by focusing on a specific type of innovation, product innovation. Moreover, since innovation capability is often studied in small firms or in the manufacturing industry, this study contributes to the research on innovation capability and the consequences on innovation capability in the services sector and medium- and large-sized companies. By proving that decentralization mediates the effects of innovation ambidexterity on product innovation performance, it enables reconsideration of the organizational structure role in fostering innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of ambidextrous capabilities, explorative capability and exploitative capability on product innovation performance in the context of internationalization and cross-cultural environment; and to examine the moderating effects of CEO’s preference of risks and opportunities in the international market on the relationship between ambidextrous capabilities and multinational enterprises’ (MNEs) product innovation performance.

Data were collected from 189 MNEs located in China, which develop international business through export, outsourcing, foreign equity investment or foreign direct investment. Measurement reliability and validity were examined and hierarchical linear regression was used to test the hypotheses.

Results indicated that both explorative and exploitative capability are positively related to MNEs’ new product development and commercialization of Chinese MNEs; and CEO’s preference of risks and opportunities in international market plays a significant moderating role in the two phases of product innovation.

This study extends organizational ambidextrous capabilities theory to better understand the effects of explorative capability and exploitative capability on innovation performance in the context of internationalization and national cultural differences. Sample constitution is a possible limitation.

MNEs, especially those from emerging economies, should develop both explorative and exploitative capability to be flexible and competitive in dealing with cultural differences. fully take risks and opportunities should be taken into consideration regarding the international market and national cultural differences, and take an effective contingency strategy, driven by the ambidextrous capabilities toward new product innovation development and commercialization.

An empirical examination of how ambidextrous capabilities impact on Chinese MNEs’ new product development and commercialization connects the organizational ambidexterity theory to the innovation and characteristics of upper echelons.

Drawing upon the resource dependence theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine how the board capital diversity influences the explorative innovation of firms, attempting to resolve the inconsistent empirical findings of the effect of outside directors on firm’s R & D strategy.

Using a sample of Korean manufacturing firms which consider R & D capability to be one of their core competencies, the study uses negative binomial model to test the influence of board capital diversity on explorative innovation.

Results support the value of moderate level of board diversity hypothesis by demonstrating that board capital diversity shows an inverted U-shaped relationship with explorative innovation. The results also suggest that CEO ownership positively moderates the relationship between board capital diversity and firms’ innovative performance.

Mainstream research has focussed on the directors’ monitoring role based on agency theory, overlooking the more positive resource provision role. Taking on the concepts of board capital and exploration, the study introduces the notion that outside directors should be selected with a view as vehicles for bringing in valuable expertise and social linkages for the firm’s explorative innovation.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of strategic entrepreneurship on explorative and exploitative innovation in the presence of strategic learning capabilities. This study has also explored the moderating role of structural organicity between strategic entrepreneurship and strategic learning capabilities.

A total of 298 employees working in software houses of Pakistan participated in the study. The study used a questionnaire-based survey through “google forms” on convenience basis, and structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses.

The results supported the positive association of strategic entrepreneurship with explorative and exploitative dimensions of innovation. Further, strategic learning capabilities was noted to mediate the association between strategic entrepreneurship and explorative innovation; however, it did not mediate the association between strategic entrepreneurship and exploitative innovation. Finally, the study examined the moderating role of structural organicity and noted a higher positive impact of strategic entrepreneurship on learning capabilities in the case of high structural organicity.

The study collected data from a developing country during COVID-19, which may affect generalizability. The study suggests management to work on employees’ learning capabilities to cultivate the benefits of explorative innovation.

This study explores the mediating role of strategic learning capabilities between strategic entrepreneurship and innovation ambidexterity. In addition, it explores the conditional effect of structural organicity to trigger strategic learning capabilities.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the knowledge breadth and depth and the balance of the two affect various dimensions of the innovation performance under the consideration of the organizational slack as a moderating factor of the analysis framework.

This study constructs and verifies a research model of knowledge breadth and depth to the explorative and exploitative innovation performance, using the exploratory factor analysis and the hierarchical regression analysis based on a survey sample of 320 Chinese companies.

The knowledge base is a critical foundation for improving innovation performance of an enterprise. A more detailed analysis reveals that first knowledge breadth provides more benefits for explorative innovation performance while the knowledge depth is more advantageous to exploitative innovation performance of an organization. Second, organizational slack can positively facilitate the improvement of the knowledge depth for the explorative innovation performance while an optimal balance of the knowledge breadth and depth can significantly enhance exploitative innovation performance.

This paper contributes to previous research work by providing both specific comparative studies and a clear explanation of the impacts of different dimensions of the knowledge base, i.e., knowledge breadth and knowledge depth, on innovation performance measures of both exploration and exploitation through a comprehensive empirical study. In particular, organizational slack is found to play a much more complicated moderation role between the knowledge base and the two different dimensions of innovation performance than has been demonstrated in previous research.

This paper aims to empirically explore the impact of absorptive capacity (AC) on explorative and exploitative innovation in business cluster settings, and the environment's moderating role on these relationships.

Using a sample of Central European companies, the paper applies multivariate data analysis techniques to test the effect of AC on innovation performance and potential moderators, respectively.

The empirical evidence indicates that AC impacts both explorative and exploitative innovation, and that the strength of the impact depends on the business clusters' level of dynamism and competitiveness. Environmental dynamism and competitiveness positively moderate the effect of AC on explorative innovation, and negatively moderate the effect of AC on exploitative innovation.

Several research limitations apply. First, only one interview per firm was conducted on a self‐reporting basis. Second, the survey's focus was on SMEs. Third, questionnaire translations and differing interviewer behaviour may bias the results.

The findings suggest that firms in business clusters must develop AC to gain the fruits of agglomeration effects. Furthermore, attention should be paid to the cluster's environmental conditions, since dynamism and competition play a significant role for innovation.

Although the importance of AC has often been highlighted, much more remains to be understood about its role in business cluster settings. This issue is addressed in this work by providing systematic, empirical evidence on how AC affects innovation performance at the firm level, and on how this relationship depends on the business cluster's environmental characteristics.

New ventures search for external knowledge to break through the prevailing knowledge and resource constraints. The influence of search mechanisms can be assessed against the backdrop of internal factors such as the venture’s knowledge integration (KI) capability. The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of knowledge search depth (KSD) and knowledge search breadth (KSB) on innovation outcomes and asks to what extent such effects are mediated by levels of KI.

The authors distinguish between the current depth and width of the firm’s knowledge base as to detect their possible moderating effects. The authors test the model using data collected from 167 Chinese start-ups.

The results show that KSB has a positive effect on KI and innovation performance, but KSD has an inverted U-shaped effect on KI and innovation performance. KI plays a mediating role between external knowledge search and innovation performance, while the breadth of the venture’s knowledge base positively moderates the relationship between explorative KI and innovation performance, and the depth of knowledge base positively moderates the relationship between exploitive KI and innovation performance.

These results differ from earlier research focusing on mature enterprises.

Research in the area of business model innovation (BMI) has focused on theoretical and exploratory discussions, thereby creating a lack of empirical evidence on the role of top management in BMI. The current study focuses on this research gap and provides empirical evidence by studying the impact of top managers’ managerial skills, managerial ties and entrepreneurial skills on BMI. It also seeks to explore the mediating influence of explorative and exploitative learning.

Data were collected from 200 respondents from top multinational firms in India covering six sectors, which was analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The findings reveal significant positive relationships of BMI with managerial skills, entrepreneur skills and managerial ties, and these relationships are found to be mediated by exploitative and explorative learning.

Given the increasing importance of BMI to organizational success, the study has highlighted that top managers’ skills and ties favorably influence BMI. Organizations can make related investments in training and capacity building by instituting appropriate programs in their organizations. In addition, organizations can exercise caution during recruitment by recruiting and selecting managers in top management teams who excel in managerial skills.

This study is one of the few to validate a comprehensive measurement model that highlights the influence of managerial skills, entrepreneur skills and managerial ties on BMI, explaining these associations with the mediating role of exploitative and explorative learning.

Prior studies have suggested that organizational and environmental antecedents are influential to the development of a balance dimension of innovation ambidexterity, which are proposed to be central to superior firm performance. However, little is known about how such antecedents affect the shaping of innovation ambidexterity in small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) and how these innovations go on to shape firm performance. This paper aims to examine internal and external antecedents of SMEs' innovation ambidexterity outcomes.

The research used a survey method to investigate the 1,000 small‐and medium sized enterprises in Scotland. Firms were randomly selected from the FAME database. Of this sample, 265 firms (26.5 percent) responded to the survey.

The data analysis reveals that internal organizational structures in a highly dynamic environment stimulate the appearance of innovation ambidexterity. Moreover, it is found that the relationship between organizational and environmental forces and firm performance is partially mediated by a balance dimension of innovation ambidexterity.

The results show how dangerous the lack of adequate research of these issues at the SME level is. By contrast to larger firms, the results show how internal organizational structures and external environmental conditions affect SMEs to pursue a balance dimension of innovation ambidexterity.

Prior studies have paid little attention to the effects of internal organizational structures and external environmental conditions on the appearance of a balance dimension of innovation ambidexterity within SMEs. This paper fills some of the gaps.