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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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30 Jun 2020
TL;DR: In this paper, the mediating role of organizational ambidexterity with innovation leadership for achieving enhanced performances in an organization is described, and the results of the study show the novel findings & sufficient support for greater part of the hypotheses.
Abstract: The major objective of this paper is to develop & test an integrated model of organizational ambidexterity, providing solutions to achieve the maximum performance outcomes. This research describes the mediating role of organizational ambidexterity with innovation leadership for achieving enhanced performances in an organization. Prior research has acknowledged that innovation leadership influence the organizational performance, little is known whether and how organizational ambidexterity affects the innovation leadership that contributes the organizational performance. The sample of private & government sectors employees were selected to test out theoretical model. Total 160 questionnaires were distributed & we received the response from 150 different organizations providing the data necessary of analysis of our integrated model. The results of the study show the novel findings & sufficient support for greater part of the hypotheses. It shows that innovation leadership is positively related to organizational performances exhibiting the direct effect. It also shows that innovation leadership is also positively related with organizational ambidexterity. It has been analyzed & found that organizational ambidexterity plays & important part for maximizing organizational performances. The mediating role of organizational ambidexterity also provides us unique, novel & diverse readings indicating a large amount of change due to mediation process. Generally the development of integrated model of organizational ambidexterity was supported both theoretically & statistically.
2 citations
Cites background from "Structural Differentiation and Ambi..."
...Research article written by Jansen et al. (2009) specified that transformational leadership is extra suitable in making exploratory innovations, while transactional leadership is extra suitable in making exploitative innovation....
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...This is because hierarchical arrangements enables exploitation remunerated in steady environments, while organic organizations are supposed to empower exploration rewarded in dynamic environments (March, 1991; Jansen et al., 2009)....
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TL;DR: This paper examined the interplay between the design competencies of different management cohorts, relational coordination, and organi... and followed the continuity perspective of leadership skill requirements to examine the cross-collaborative design.
2 citations
01 Jan 2021
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify six types of interdependencies in a structure and propose a linking mechanism for each of them, including authority, rewards, management processes, tacit coordinating mechanisms, and lateral roles and teams.
Abstract: Linking refers to the integration of effort, which is the second of the two interlinked problems at the core of organization design (the first being the division of labor). The extent of linking necessary will depend on the design decisions made with regard to the division of labor. Linking mechanisms are needed to address interdependencies that remain in the structure that was designed. There are six types of interdependence. Goal interdependence and task interdependence are the two most important ones and will exist in almost any structure. The other types of interdependence are around sharing and leveraging resources (funding, support services, brand names, etc.), sharing knowledge, working according to standards, and delivering to the same market. Interdependencies in a structure can be identified using these six categories. Only the most critical interdependencies should be addressed in the organization design. The linking mechanisms available to organizations are authority, rewards, management processes, tacit coordinating mechanisms, and lateral roles and teams. These linking mechanisms differ in terms of complexity and cost and in terms of their formalization. The least expensive linking mechanism that adequately addresses the critical interdependence in question should be chosen. Remaining interdependencies can be addressed by informal means of coordinating.
2 citations
29 Apr 2021
TL;DR: In this paper, a case study in a Brazilian financial institution, with semi-structured interviews conducted with internal and external players, showed that the need to develop more complex innovation structures, which act in a way that is integrated to the ecosystem, and the establishment of an organizational function, with a specific mandate to seek innovation in new business platforms.
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to contribute to studies on organizational ambidexterity by analyzing how an incumbent company is managing its innovation structures and balancing exploitation and exploration activities to generate value in a digital economy context.,The research was designed in a qualitative format through a single case study in a Brazilian financial institution, with semi-structured interviews conducted with internal and external players.,Based on the case study, two possible contributions emerged as results, to fill the research gap: the need to develop more complex innovation structures, which act in a way that is integrated to the ecosystem; and the establishment of an organizational function, with a specific mandate to seek innovation in new business platforms.,Although the theory gives evidence about the potential that ambidexterity represents for companies, ‘how’ to orchestrate the trade-offs to achieve it is not clear, particularly in regards to first steps toward ambidexterity. This work aims to contribute to fill this gap through an empirical study in a large Brazilian company, analyzing its trajectory toward ambidexterity.
2 citations
04 Aug 2014
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors link the exploration-exploitation framework of organizational learning to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in a developing economy, and propose a four-stage framework that unfolds via initiation, innovation, transformation, and expansion.
Abstract: We link the exploration–exploitation framework of organizational learning to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in a developing economy. SMEs in a developing economy generally lack abundant resources and capabilities because of an evolving set of industrial and environmental regulations. Studying two SMEs in China, we argue that their approaches to balancing exploration and exploitation depend on the development stages of the SMEs and their industrial and environmental contexts. In particular, we propose a four-stage framework that unfolds via initiation, innovation, transformation, and expansion. In this framework, SMEs balance exploration and exploitation by adopting temporal separation and organizational separation sequentially. We also find that SMEs may benefit from exploring a narrow scope of products and exploiting them in a wide market scope.
2 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.
Abstract: In this article, we attempt to distinguish between the properties of moderator and mediator variables at a number of levels. First, we seek to make theorists and researchers aware of the importance of not using the terms moderator and mediator interchangeably by carefully elaborating, both conceptually and strategically, the many ways in which moderators and mediators differ. We then go beyond this largely pedagogical function and delineate the conceptual and strategic implications of making use of such distinctions with regard to a wide range of phenomena, including control and stress, attitudes, and personality traits. We also provide a specific compendium of analytic procedures appropriate for making the most effective use of the moderator and mediator distinction, both separately and in terms of a broader causal system that includes both moderators and mediators.
80,095 citations
"Structural Differentiation and Ambi..." refers background in this paper
...A four-item scale ( = 0 70) measures firmlevel exploitative innovation (Jansen et al. 2006) and captures the extent to which organizations build on existing knowledge and pursue incremental innovations that meet the needs of existing customers (Abernathy and Clark 1985, Benner and Tushman 2003,…...
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the link between firm resources and sustained competitive advantage and analyzed the potential of several firm resources for generating sustained competitive advantages, including value, rareness, imitability, and substitutability.
46,648 citations
"Structural Differentiation and Ambi..." refers background in this paper
...provides organizations with competitive advantages over time (Barney 1991)....
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...Our study broadens the conceptual interpretation of organizational ambidexterity and suggests that it is difficult to achieve yet rare and not easily imitated, and 797 provides organizations with competitive advantages over time (Barney 1991)....
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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.
Abstract: In this paper, we 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. We label this capability a firm's absorptive capacity and suggest that it is largely a function of the firm's level of prior related knowledge. The discussion focuses first on the cognitive basis for an individual's absorptive capacity including, in particular, prior related knowledge and diversity of background. We then characterize the factors that influence absorptive capacity at the organizational level, how an organization's absorptive capacity differs from that of its individual members, and the role of diversity of expertise within an organization. We argue that the development of absorptive capacity, and, in turn, innovative performance are history- or path-dependent and argue how lack of investment in an area of expertise early on may foreclose the future development of a technical capability in that area. We formulate a model of firm investment in research and development (R&D), in which R&D contributes to a firm's absorptive capacity, and test predictions relating a firm's investment in R&D to the knowledge underlying technical change within an industry. Discussion focuses on the implications of absorptive capacity for the analysis of other related innovative activities, including basic research, the adoption and diffusion of innovations, and decisions to participate in cooperative R&D ventures. **
31,623 citations
"Structural Differentiation and Ambi..." refers background in this paper
...Organizational integration mechanisms not only facilitate new value creation through linking previously unconnected knowledge sources (Cohen and Levinthal 1990), but also through providing opportunities to leverage common resources and obtaining synergies across exploratory and exploitative units…...
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TL;DR: The dynamic capabilities framework as mentioned in this paper analyzes the sources and methods of wealth creation and capture by private enterprise firms operating in environments of rapid technological change, and suggests that private wealth creation in regimes of rapid technology change depends in large measure on honing intemal technological, organizational, and managerial processes inside the firm.
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
"Structural Differentiation and Ambi..." refers background in this paper
...…capabilities, which are embedded in the distinct ways that organizations integrate, build, and recombine competences flexibly across boundaries, are fundamental to long-term strategic advantage (Eisenhardt and Martin 2000, Henderson and Cockburn 1994, Kogut and Zander 1992, Teece et al. 1997)....
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TL;DR: In this article, structural equation models with latent variables are defined, critiqued, and illustrated, and an overall program for model evaluation is proposed based upon an interpretation of converging and diverging evidence.
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