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Structural Differentiation and Ambidexterity: The Mediating Role of Integration Mechanisms
05 Nov 2008-ERIM report series research in management Erasmus Research Institute of Management (Erasmus Research Institute of Management)-
TL;DR: The findings suggest that the previously asserted direct effect of structural differentiation on ambidexterity operates through informal senior team and formal organizational integration mechanisms, and contributes to a greater clarity and better understanding of how organizations may effectively pursue exploration and exploitation simultaneously to achieve ambideXterity.
Abstract: textPrior studies have emphasized that structural attributes are crucial to simultaneously pursuing exploration and exploitation, yet our understanding of antecedents of ambidexterity is still limited. Structural differentiation can help ambidextrous organizations to maintain multiple inconsistent and conflicting demands; however, differentiated exploratory and exploitative activities need to mobilized, coordinated, integrated, and applied. Based on this idea, we delineate formal and informal senior team integration mechanisms (i.e. contingency rewards and social integration) and formal and informal organizational integration mechanisms (i.e. cross-functional interfaces and connectedness) and examine how they mediate the relationship between structural differentiation and ambidexterity. Overall, our findings suggest that the previously asserted direct effect of structural differentiation on ambidexterity operates through informal senior team (i.e. senior team social integration) and formal organizational (i.e. cross-functional interfaces) integration mechanisms. Through this richer explanation and empirical assessment, we contribute to a greater clarity and better understanding of how organizations may effectively pursue exploration and exploitation simultaneously to achieve ambidexterity.
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Proceedings Article•
01 Jan 2017TL;DR: A holistic view is presented to illuminate relationships among resource complementarity, relational capabilities, subsequent performance and cooperation continuance intention based on the perspective of resource-based view to contribute nascent knowledge for sharing economy phenomenon and value co-creation with online marketing and information management disciplines scholarly.
Abstract: In recent years, the sharing economy has been grown increasingly as an important means to achieve
sustainable competitive advantage. With the support of mobile phone devices and the ubiquitous
application of “SOLOMO (social, location, mobile)” concept, the emerging sharing economy hubs
increase the pool of potential service providers and sellers by leveraging networked technology to
change how market participants engage in a specific transaction. Several successful examples, such as
Uber, Airbnb or live streaming platforms, demonstrate that such phenomenon will continue to
generate immense interests and receive growing practical and academic attentions for the next
decades. In order to meet the needs of heterogeneous network users or buyers, platform owners seek
to promote and exploit the network resources from providers and facilitate the transactions. Therefore,
the holistic network performance improves and values are co-created when the presence of platform
owner complements network members each other. Though the importance of the above mentioned
resource complementarity can be well-recognized from many practical evidences and academic
studies, the role and empirical evidence of resource complementarity in facilitating the cocreation
value and the impact on subsequent performance under sharing economy context is still not well
understood. Moreover, sharing economy network is a new and distinct type of organization form and
separates from markets and hierarchies, it still requires unique theories and research approaches for
providing deeper insights. Value can be co-created by complementary alignment of mutual resources,
but the degree to which value generation occurs is still subject to contextual factors. Therefore, the
objective of this study is to present a holistic view to illuminate relationships among resource
complementarity, relational capabilities (including relational embeddedness and ambidextrous
competence), subsequent performance and cooperation continuance intention based on the
perspective of resource-based view. 367 respondents from well-known online streaming platform were
collected. We find that all hypotheses are supported, except that relational embeddedness has no any
significant effect on financial performance. From this study, we hope to contribute nascent knowledge
for sharing economy phenomenon and value co-creation with online marketing and information
management disciplines scholarly, and provide fruitful insights to the design of an effective valuecreating
ecosystem application platform through our study for practitioners.
5 citations
Cites background or methods from "Structural Differentiation and Ambi..."
...Ambidextrous competence refers to the routines and processes by which firms mobilize, coordinate and integrate various efforts, and allocate, reconfigure or recombine resources and assets across differentiated exploratory and exploitative processes concurrently (Jansen et al., 2009)....
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...For relational embeddedness, items were from Chien et al. (2012), and ambidextrous competence were adapted Twenty First Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems, Langkawi 2017 8 from Jansen et al. (2009)....
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...As such, prior studies have argued that organizations with higher ambidextrous competence can generate competitive advantage through the process of exploitation and exploration innovation (Jansen et al., 2009)....
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the business development tasks and processes that span a growth opportunity's planning phase and its implementation phase and their unique performance implications, finding that business development increases firm performance and that the effectiveness of business planning depends on business development.
Abstract: Planning for a growth opportunity's success remains a challenge. Under which conditions does planning work, then? This exploratory study investigates the business development tasks and processes that span a growth opportunity's planning phase and its implementation phase and their unique performance implications. On the basis of 73 CEO responses from growth SMEs, the results show that business development increases firm performance and that the effectiveness of business planning depends on business development. Business developer support is found to positively influence firm performance per se. Business development is presented as an important organisational capability to pursue growth opportunities and subsequently theoretically anchored in the resource-based view of the firm. Implications for managers and for future business development research are discussed.
5 citations
Cites background from "Structural Differentiation and Ambi..."
...A comparable example in the management literature is, for example, organisational ambidexterity, which is comprised by two conflicting organisational processes; exploration and exploitation (Jansen et al., 2009; Tushman and O’Reilly, 1996)....
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TL;DR: The findings suggest that the assignment of the ambidextrous task generates the highest individual performance under some conditions, which negates the assumption that individuals find it difficult to handle both exploration and exploitation.
Abstract: While previous studies on ambidexterity have focused on the antecedents or consequences of organizational ambidexterity, not many studies have attempted to explore ambidexterity at the individual level. This study intends to fill such gap and provides arguments on the effects of three different types of task assignment (exploration only, exploitation only, and both exploration and exploitation) on individual performance to understand ambidexterity. We adopted a single-agent simulation model and examined the relationship between the three types of task assignment and individual performance measured by the knowledge creation level. Individual attitude toward risk and tension between exploration and exploitation are considered in our simulation model. The findings suggest that the assignment of the ambidextrous task (both exploration and exploitation) generates the highest individual performance under some conditions, which negates the assumption that individuals find it difficult to handle both exploration and exploitation.
5 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify and discuss inherent paradoxes and their implications for firm performance in industry-specific strategies, where empirical industry data shows a pattern of conflict between explorative growth strategies and exploitative profit strategies.
Abstract: To survive in today’s increasingly complex business environments, firms must embrace
strategic paradoxes: contradictory yet interrelated objectives that persist over time. This
can be one of toughest of all leadership challenges, as managers must accept inconsist-
ency and contradictions. In this article, we develop and empirically test a set of hypotheses
related to ambidexterity, a key example of a paradoxical strategy. Through our analysis of
data from a survey of executive leaders, we find a link between organizational ambidexter
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ity and strategic planning, suggesting that the complexities of navigating in explorative
ventures require more explicit strategy work than the old certainties of a legacy business.
We identify and discuss inherent paradoxes and their implications for firm performance in
22 industry-specific strategies, where empirical industry data shows a pattern of conflict
between explorative growth strategies and exploitative profit strategies. We argue that this
is just one of the inherent paradoxes in the ambidexterity construct.
5 citations
References
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TL;DR: This article seeks to make theorists and researchers aware of the importance of not using the terms moderator and mediator interchangeably by carefully elaborating the many ways in which moderators and mediators differ, and delineates the conceptual and strategic implications of making use of such distinctions with regard to a wide range of phenomena.
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"Structural Differentiation and Ambi..." refers background in this paper
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46,648 citations
"Structural Differentiation and Ambi..." refers background in this paper
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the ability of a firm to recognize the value of new, external information, assimilate it, and apply it to commercial ends is critical to its innovative capabilities.
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31,623 citations
"Structural Differentiation and Ambi..." refers background in this paper
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Abstract: The dynamic capabilities framework analyzes the sources and methods of wealth creation and capture by private enterprise firms operating in environments of rapid technological change. The competitive advantage of firms is seen as resting on distinctive processes (ways of coordinating and combining), shaped by the firm's (specific) asset positions (such as the firm's portfolio of difftcult-to- trade knowledge assets and complementary assets), and the evolution path(s) it has aflopted or inherited. The importance of path dependencies is amplified where conditions of increasing retums exist. Whether and how a firm's competitive advantage is eroded depends on the stability of market demand, and the ease of replicability (expanding intemally) and imitatability (replication by competitors). If correct, the framework suggests that private wealth creation in regimes of rapid technological change depends in large measure on honing intemal technological, organizational, and managerial processes inside the firm. In short, identifying new opportunities and organizing effectively and efficiently to embrace them are generally more fundamental to private wealth creation than is strategizing, if by strategizing one means engaging in business conduct that keeps competitors off balance, raises rival's costs, and excludes new entrants. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
27,902 citations
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19,160 citations