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Structural Differentiation and Ambidexterity: The Mediating Role of Integration Mechanisms

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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Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the effect of entrepreneurial orientation on the exploration-exploitation balance within customer management and new product development (NPD) and found that entrepreneurial orientation has both positive and negative associations with performance under different environmental conditions.

39 citations

Dissertation
01 Sep 2019
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present and analyse a conceptual framework that will provide a better understanding of the relationship between TQM and sustainability practices and their impacts on organisational performance when co-implemented.
Abstract: The global campaign on sustainability has compelled organisations to collectively address a wide range of issues beyond their traditional goal of maximising profits. In an effort to address the effects of their activities on the environment, organisations have attempted to adopt sustainability practices. However, they are still struggling with the implementation of these practices. Total Quality Management (TQM) practices, on the other hand, have been researched extensively and empirically proven to have positive impacts on organizational performance. Given the seeming similarity between TQM and Sustainability adoption processes, the central question of this research is if organisations can leverage on their experience in TQM implementation to facilitate and enhance implementation of sustainability practices. This research therefore seeks to present and analyse a conceptual framework that will provide a better understanding of the relationship between TQM and sustainability practices and their impacts on organisational performance when co-implemented. To address this, an extensive literature review was carried out which highlighted the key intersections between TQM and sustainability practices. Based on the assumption that organisations that implement TQM are better at adopting sustainability practices, a further delineation of the relevant theoretical insights and the existence of synergies between TQM and sustainability practices were highlighted. The empirical data for this research was drawn from a wide range of organisations operating in the United Kingdom. A survey of 880 organisations was conducted of which a total of 137 valid responses were used for the data analyses. Results obtained from structural equation modelling (SEM) confirmed the existence of synergies between TQM and sustainability practices and suggest that the co-implementation of TQM and sustainability practices has a positive and significant impact on organisational performance. This supports the view that TQM organisations have considerable advantage at implementing sustainability practices. Furthermore, empirical evidence revealed that top management commitment, one of the TQM principles, plays the role of a mediator in the relationship between sustainability practices and organisational performance. This suggests that the greater the involvement of the leadership team in an organisation the greater the sustainability adoption which will in turn lead to improved organisational performance. The research enriches the literature on sustainability practices and offers stakeholders insights into the relationship between TQM and sustainability practices and how they can leverage the experience from the co-implementation to effectively pursue strategies that will aid the adoption of sustainability practices and improve organisational performance.

38 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: These findings extend understanding of organizational ambidexterity as a dynamic capability, in particular how competency traps can severely compromise ambideXterity; and how network-like effects can adversely shape intra-firm dynamics.

38 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine how gender diversity on boards of directors affects investment in research and development (R&D), thereby providing the platform for future ambidexterity of the organization.

37 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This work uses meta-analytic structural equation modeling to aggregate evidence from 255 samples involving 111,614 observations to answer outstanding research questions regarding the strategic resources–actions–performance pathway, and shows strong complementarity and interdependence between their logics.

37 citations

References
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Journal ArticleDOI
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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Book ChapterDOI
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)....

    [...]

  • ...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)....

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
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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Journal ArticleDOI
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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Journal ArticleDOI
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.
Abstract: Criteria for evaluating structural equation models with latent variables are defined, critiqued, and illustrated. An overall program for model evaluation is proposed based upon an interpretation of converging and diverging evidence. Model assessment is considered to be a complex process mixing statistical criteria with philosophical, historical, and theoretical elements. Inevitably the process entails some attempt at a reconcilation between so-called objective and subjective norms.

19,160 citations