Loughborough University
Browse
YY MH SH MD_resubmission_final.pdf (344.71 kB)

Internal and external antecedents of SMEs' innovation ambidexterity outcomes

Download (344.71 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2017-09-05, 09:49 authored by Yi-Ying Chang, Mathew Hughes, Sabine Hotho
PURPOSE. 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. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH. 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. FINDINGS. 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. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS. 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. ORIGINALITY/VALUE. 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.

History

School

  • Business and Economics

Department

  • Business

Published in

Management Decision

Volume

49

Issue

10

Pages

1658 - 1676

Citation

CHANG, Y., HUGHES, M. and HOTHO, S., 2011. Internal and external antecedents of SMEs' innovation ambidexterity outcomes. Management Decision, 49 (10), pp.1658-1676.

Publisher

© Emerald

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Publication date

2011

ISSN

0025-1747

Language

  • en

Usage metrics

    Loughborough Publications

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC