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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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TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose that top management team (TMT) shared leadership is an important enabler of organizational ambidexterity. And they examine both how and when TMT shared leadership enhances organizational ambidesterity by considering two TMT processes as mediators (i.e., cooperative conflict management style and decision-making comprehensiveness) and two elements of organizational structure.
Abstract: This study proposes top management team (TMT) shared leadership as an important enabler of organizational ambidexterity. Moreover, we examine both how and when TMT shared leadership enhances organizational ambidexterity by considering two TMT processes as mediators (i.e., cooperative conflict management style and decision-making comprehensiveness) and two elements of organizational structure (i.e., connectedness and centralization of decision making) as important contingencies. We test our moderated mediation framework using time-lagged data from a cross-industry sample of 202 firms. We discuss how our findings extend strategic entrepreneurship, ambidexterity, and leadership research and provide implications for practice. Copyright © 2013 Strategic Management Society.
170 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine organizational and functional tenure as important antecedents of managers' ambidexterity and provide novel insights into the contextual conditions under which the ambidextrous behavior of managers contributes to individual performance.
Abstract: Scholars have suggested that we need a better understanding about the drivers and performance implications of managers’ ambidexterity. By building a human resource management perspective on managers’ ambidexterity, this article not only examines organizational and functional tenure as important antecedents, but also provides novel insights into the contextual conditions under which the ambidextrous behavior of managers contributes to individual performance. Based on survey research among managers of two large firms, our results indicate that while organizational tenure contributes to managers’ ambidextrous behavior, functional tenure actually limits such complex behavior. Our study also reveals how managers’ performance results from the interaction between their ambidextrous behavior and the uncertainty as well as the interdependence of their work context. Results indicate that managers’ ambidexterity contributes to individual performance in more uncertain and interdependent work contexts. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
166 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors take a multilevel perspective and argue that a competency in ambidexterity involves three capabilities at different organizational levels: decision risk (strategic level), structural differentiation (project level), and contextual alignment (meso level).
165 citations
Cites background from "Structural Differentiation and Ambi..."
...In contrast, the ambidexterity literature argues that organizations can do both of these learning activities simultaneously (Jansen et al., 2009; O’Reilly and Tushman, 2004)....
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...Although there is general consensus about the relationship between ambidexterity and performance, few studies have looked at the antecedents that promote ambidexterity competency (Andriopoulous and Lewis, 2009; Jansen et al., 2009)....
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...All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jom.2011.10.002 organization’s focus on efficiency or exploitative gains can inhibit their ability to innovate or explore (Abernathy, 1978; Benner and Tushman, 2002; Jansen et al., 2009)....
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...According to this literature, operational level tensions can be mitigated by physically separating exploration (in R&D units) and exploitation (in manufacturing) (Jansen et al., 2009)....
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...This piecemeal approach has resulted in diverse mechanisms such as integration (Smith and Tushman, 2005), differentiation (Jansen et al., 2009), and alignment and adaptability (Gibson and Birkinshaw, 2004) that can promote ambidexterity competency....
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TL;DR: In this article, a field study of 198 companies from Spain showed that high-involvement human resource practices were positively related to the social climate that, in turn, facilitates ambidextrous learning and improved performance.
Abstract: Both researchers and managers are increasingly interested in how firms can pursue ambidextrous learning—that is, simultaneously exploring new knowledge domains while exploiting current ones. In this study, we attempt to bring human resource management into this forum by introducing and testing how high-involvement human resource practices shape the social climate that affects the firm's ambidextrous learning and subsequent performance. A field study of 198 companies from Spain showed that high-involvement human resource practices were positively related to the social climate that, in turn, facilitates ambidextrous learning and improved performance. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
161 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors proposed a contingency framework for reexamining the SCI-supplier performance relationship under demand and technological uncertainties, based on efficiency-flexibility arguments.
Abstract: – Effective and efficient supply chain coordination requires the integration of all product flow processes. However, inconsistent empirical results have been obtained with respect to the relationships between supply chain integration (SCI) and performance. Drawing on efficiency-flexibility arguments, this paper seeks to develop a SCI model that includes buyer-supplier-supplier relationships, and proposes a contingency framework for reexamining the SCI-supplier performance relationship under demand and technological uncertainties. , – A two-stage data collection process was conducted, and a total of 878 suppliers that listed in the Taiwanese “Center-Satellite Production System” with supply contract were contacted for this study. Finally 164 suppliers were gathered and screened as valid responses. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses in this study. , – Evidence indicates that SCI has a significant positive effect on the suppliers' performance. The positive SCI-performance relationship can be moderately weakened by demand uncertainty; however, this positive SCI-performance relationship will be strengthened by technological uncertainty. , – While supply chain management is needed to manage the vertical and horizontal relationships simultaneously, this study offers a framework to solve efficiency-flexibility dilemma arguments when dealing with “exploitation” and “exploration” alternatives to help to reexamine the inconsistent SCI-performance relationship. Furthermore, based on transaction cost theory, this paper takes the nature of uncertainty into account for improving the theoretical background of the SCI-performance relationship arguments. Empirical results indicate the existence of an ambidextrous supply chain integration strategy which justifies the choice of which one is preferable in efficiency-flexibility dilemma arguments.
160 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.
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.
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