Bridging knowledge in ambidextrous HRM systems: empirical evidence from hidden champions

Managing the tension between efficiency and flexibility is one of the core challenges that organizations must tackle in order to survive in the global competitive environment. Ambidexterity has been identified in the literature as a key way of managing this tension. Despite the enormous popularity of the concept of ambidexterity, the questions of how HR practices influence exploration and exploitation and support organizational ambidexterity remain underexplored. Drawing on our empirical case studies of three mid-sized ‘hidden champions’ in different high-tech manufacturing industries, we show how an ambidextrous human resource management (HRM) system works. We demonstrate that ambidextrous HRM systems can be regarded as a special type of high-performance work system (HPWS) that facilitates the continuous integration of exploration and exploitation in the pursuit of flexibility and efficiency. In particular, we elucidate how firms apply integrative employment practices and integrative work practices to facilitate collaboration and to create and strengthen a common frame of reference that fosters knowledge integration. Finally, setting up an ambidextrous HRM system supports the complementary interplay between a common frame of reference and a firm's ability to integrate knowledge in order to manage the conflicting demands of exploration and exploitation.     

Ambidextrous work in smart city project alliances: unpacking the role of human resource management systems

Abstract

Organizations that are competing in dynamic global markets are increasingly adopting ambidextrous strategies where exploration and exploitation capabilities are combined simultaneously. However, ambidextrous work raises new challenges for human resource management (HRM). Based on 21 interviews with managers in seven multinational firms in Europe, we investigate how ambidextrous work in smart city work is supported through HRM systems. Our findings suggest a complex mix of three different HRM systems (one at corporate and two at project levels) designed to support ambidextrous exploratory and exploitation work. Specifically, corporate HRM systems focused on incentives and development of dual capabilities for smart city managers (SCMs). At project levels, interconnected explorative and exploitative HRM systems offered tailored managerial tools to support social integration and knowledge management between internal and external employees. Theoretical contributions, future research paths, and practical implications are addressed.     

Assessing the impact of green supply chain practices on firm performance in the Korean manufacturing industry

As a growing number of customers tend to view corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a key purchase decision criterion, demands for CSR including environmental sustainability have accelerated in today's business world. To meet such demands, many firms consider embracing environment-friendly business practices. However, many firms are still hesitant to implement those practices due to sceptical views about their real managerial benefits. Although the previous literature confirms the positive link between a firm's commitment to environmental sustainability and its performance, the varying degree of impact of different kinds of environment-friendly supply chain practices on the firm's operational performance is still unknown. To fill the void left by prior research, this paper aims to classify various types of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices and then assess the impact of each of these distinct types on the firm's operational performances (especially manufacturing and marketing performance). Also, this paper examines how the firm's organisational profiles such as firm size affect the particular firm's choice of GSCM practices. Our experimental results reveal that the chosen type of GSCM practices influences the firm's performance differently.     

How supply chain strategies moderate the relationship between innovation capabilities and business performance

The purpose of this paper is to study how the fit between innovation capabilities and supply chain (SC) strategies affects business performance. An empirical study based on a sample of 329 companies from Portugal and Brazil was performed to test a theoretical model based on the resource-based view. Linear and hierarchical regression analyses are conducted to test the hypotheses. The different combinations of core and supplementary innovation capabilities and lean and agile SC strategies are empirically tested and discussed. Data reveal that core and supplementary innovation capabilities positively impact on business performance and that SC strategies moderate the relationship between innovation capabilities and business performance. The analysis also shows that the combination of an agile SC strategy and supplementary innovation capabilities offers the greatest opportunities to improve business performance. The results of this study could help managers to choose the most appropriate SC strategy, thus contributing to increasing the impact of innovation capabilities on business performance. This study contributes to the knowledge concerning the consequences of adopting different innovation capabilities and SC strategies on business performance.     

The role of control power allocation in service supply chains: Model analysis and empirical examination

In complex and competitive business environment, there have been many examples of supply chain members fighting for power. Therefore, researchers have begun focusing on the impact of control power allocation on the supply chain. This paper examines the allocation of power in different service supply chain relationships, analyzing the impact of service level on optimal control power allocation and comparing the differences between the optimal power distribution in service supply chains and that of manufacturing supply chains. We adopt a mathematical model building method to discuss this issue, verifying the theoretical perspectives through empirical studies of China's largest state-owned logistics company, the China Railway Company, and the private ownership enterprise, Tianjin SND Logistics Company. We also develop a conceptual model of the influence of control power on the performance of service supply chains, based on the modeling and case analysis. The conceptual model shows several results: the control power allocation determines the dominant structure of the supply chain; the service provider's wholesale pricing strategy and the service integrator's sales price strategy present different outcomes under various dominant structures of the supply chain, which will greatly affect the performance of the corresponding supply chain; and the relationship between the supply chain dominant structure and the price can be adjusted by the service level.     

不确定条件下供应链的柔性和绩效研究框架

在供应链动态和复杂的环境不确定性条件下,柔性成为了有效的竞争手段,并可以对供应链绩效进行持续改进。所以,提升供应链的柔性越来越受到理论界和业界的关注。在参考相关文献的基础上,给出了供应链柔性的内涵,并分析供应链在不同的生命周期阶段所体现的柔性能力,探讨在环境不确定性条件下供应链柔性战略决策和发展,进而提出基于环境不确定性条件下供应链柔性和供应链绩效的研究框架。     

Enhancing effects of manufacturing flexibility through operational absorptive capacity and operational ambidexterity

A large body of research investigates how manufacturing flexibility in uncertain environments leads to firm performance, with mixed results. The mixed findings could be due to differences across firms in terms of the capabilities to acquire, assimilate, and transform knowledge and to simultaneously pursue both the exploitation of existing operational capabilities and the exploration for new operational capabilities. Building on the literature that suggests that manufacturing flexibility mediates the relationship between environmental uncertainty and firm performance, we explore the applicability of two organizational learning contingencies to the operations environment: operational absorptive capability and operational ambidexterity. Absorptive capacity enables the recognition and assimilation of new knowledge. Ambidexterity determines whether this knowledge will be applied for both exploration and exploitation. Using a sample of 852 manufacturing firms, we find that environmental uncertainty affects firm performance directly and indirectly through manufacturing flexibility. Furthermore, both operational absorptive capacity and operational ambidexterity moderate the relationship between environmental uncertainty and manufacturing flexibility and the relationship between manufacturing flexibility and firm performance. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Integrating strategic cost management with a 3DCE environment: Strategies,practices, and benefits

The overall objective of this exploratory research was to examine the possible competitive advantages when organizations integrate strategic cost management into the simultaneous design of products, processes, and supply chains. The concept of concomitantly designing products, processes and supply chains is referred to by Fine [1998. Clockspeed. Perseus Books, Reading, MA] as three-dimensional concurrent engineering (3DCE). While many organizations have adopted concurrent engineering to design new products, few have simultaneously considered cost issues related to designing the supply chain. Fewer still were found to integrate strategic cost management with 3DCE. Thus a case study approach was deemed necessary. Based on case studies of five firms, a framework of testable propositions was developed. The initial findings indicated there is a positive relationship between the customer's and supplier's extent of participation in new product development, supplier development practices, and the integration of strategic cost management practices with 3DCE. The integration of strategic cost management with 3DCE should result in a higher level of operational performance in terms of product performance, supply chain responsiveness, and conformance to quality. Integration should also result in lower product and process costs, faster time to market, and fewer product launch problems. The overall result is a higher level of company performance and competitiveness.     

Management practices and strategies to accelerate the innovation cycle in the biotechnology industry

This paper examines management practices and strategies that are critical to successful commercialisation in the biomedical sector and how these practices and strategies impact upon performance innovation. The paper also details emerging issues and challenges for the biotechnology industry including human resource issues, access to venture capital, the development of basic business capabilities, and efficient and stable supply chain linkages.The research findings are based on data obtained from an action research methodology where 14 representatives of the biomedical sector were active participants. The qualitative data was analysed using a multiple cross-case analysis technique that explores the underpinning determinants of performance innovation in the industry. The research study identifies high-performance work practices and critical success factors to accelerate the ‘Innovation Cycle’ from idea to market. The paper concludes that managers in the biomedical industry need to acquire new business acumen skills to maintain a competitive advantage in a fiercely competitive global market. Organisations are recognising that knowledge workers with the requisite skills and expertise are critical to improving innovation performance.     

The role of HRM practices in product development: Contextual ambidexterity in a US MNC’s subsidiary in India

Abstract

Recent studies have started exploring the linkages between organisational ambidexterity (OA) and HRM practices. OA is noted as a critical resource in achieving product, process, and business model innovations. By adopting an inductive case study of a US MNC subsidiary in India, we found empowerment-focused HRM practices were being used for exploration of new ideas and efficiency-focused HRM practices were adopted for the exploitation of the organisation’s existing strengths. Empowerment-focused HRM practices created a culture of openness and risk-taking, which facilitated the creation of an ambidextrous context. Further, ambidextrous learning was moderated by the adoption of a managerial/leadership style that focused on ‘mirroring competencies’ between the parent operation and its subsidiary. HRM practices were aimed at developing behaviours that valued the team-based co-development of graphic processor designs by means of a ‘parallel processing’ approach to product development. Additionally, the HRM practice of offering intrinsic employee rewards and both informal and formal training facilitated OA in delivering product innovation. This study represents a pioneering exploration of multiple levels of analysis (individual, functional, and organisational) for product innovation through the lenses of ambidexterity, innovation, and HRM practices. The implications for both theory and practice are also discussed.     

The impact of government financial support on the performance of new firms: the role of competitive advantage as an intermediate outcome

This research examines the influence of government financial support on new firms' performance. Extant empirical research on the topic has found mixed results, which warrants an exploration of the theoretical basis for the impact of support policies on new firms' performance. Grounding the theoretical model in the resource-based view and institutional theories, this study contends that performance outcomes – e.g. revenues or profits – should not be the first outcomes of public policies to be examined. Instead, competitive advantage formation is suggested as a link between support policies and new firms' performance. Using new firms from the USA, we examine the impact of government financial support measures – government loans, guarantees and government equity – on firms' overall competitive advantage and more specific types of competitive advantage based on innovation, licensing-in, marketing and human capital. Controlling for family funding, bank financing, equity of business angels and venture capitalists, industry, size as well as entrepreneur's characteristics, the results reveal that government guarantees and government equity have a direct effect on new firms' competitive advantage and only an indirect impact on performance. Our results suggest to policy-makers to focus on helping new firms build the necessary capabilities to compete successfully in the marketplace.     

Building ambidexterity: The role of human resource practices in the performance of firms from Spain

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.     

Environmental management systems and green supply chain management: complements for sustainability?

Some researchers question the legitimacy of EMSs since organizations can claim to have one when in fact they make no attempt to reduce their environmental harm. In instances where EMSs enhance an organization's environmental performance, critics argue that improvements are likely to occur within the organization's operational boundaries rather than being extended throughout the supply chain. However, previous research suggests that the organizational capabilities required to adopt an EMS may facilitate GSCM implementation and the institutional pressures to adopt both management practices are similar. Consequently, EMS adopters may have a greater propensity to expand their focus beyond their organizational boundaries and utilize GSCM practices to minimize system‐wide environmental impacts. This research illuminates the debate by empirically evaluating the relationship between EMS and GSCM practices. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

A meta-analysis model of manufacturing capabilities

Recent research in operations strategy has focused on showing the extent to which manufacturing's competence in developing and executing one or more competitive capabilities affects the organization's overall business performance. Several of those efforts have produced models, such as the ‘sand cone’, that suggest an ideal sequence in which manufacturing capabilities should be developed. However, efforts to empirically validate such sequential models, except for one recent study, have been inconclusive. This paper takes a different approach to examining the relationships among competitive capabilities. The existing cross-sectional studies of manufacturing capabilities are integrated to synthesize a proposed model of: (1) the relationships among manufacturing capabilities, and (2) the relationships between those capabilities and business performance. The proposed model is synthesized using data from previous studies, other models and theoretical arguments. Meta-analysis is used to identify aspects of the model that appear better supported by empirical research and those that require further study. The implications of this proposed model with regard to research, practice and future research in operations strategy are discussed.     

Linking routines to operations capabilities: A new perspective

A typical approach to studying capabilities in the operations management literature is to assess the intended or realized competitive operational performance and their contribution to business and organizational objectives. While it is crucial to identify the operational performance that helps create competitive advantage, it is equally important to understand the means for delivering the needed performance at the operational level. Drawing on the resource-based view (RBV), we argue that routines are a critical source of operations capabilities and subsequently investigate operations capabilities by means of their underlying routines. Because a common problem to studying capabilities is the ambiguous and confusing definitions, we conduct an extensive literature review to address the semantic confusion among various definitions of capabilities and delineate it from other related terms. We identify improvement and innovation as two critical plant level capabilities, each consisting of a bundle of interrelated yet distinct routines. We then empirically measure the two capabilities as second-order latent variables and estimate their effects on a set of operational performance measures. The results suggest that routines form internally consistent bundles which are significantly related to operational performance. This supports our notion of “capabilities as routine bundles” that are difficult to imitate and thus a source of competitive advantage.     

Green intellectual capital and ambidextrous green innovation: The impact on environmental performance

This study relies on a unique synthesis of ambidexterity theory and the natural resource orchestration approach to investigate how green intellectual capital elements, namely green human, structural, and relational capital, along with ambidextrous green innovation, trigger a synergy in favor of environmental performance. In particular, this paper primarily aims to test the mediating role of ambidextrous green innovation in the relationship between green intellectual capital and environmental performance. Based on a survey of 105 Iranian public listed companies, the results indicate that green intellectual capital elements are not directly associated with environmental performance. Instead, they influence environmental performance only through the channel of ambidextrous green innovation as a mediating variable. This is the first study to simultaneously embed the resource orchestration theory in the green intellectual capital and ambidexterity literature. The findings of the current study offer new insights into the issue of how organizations gain maximum benefit from the orchestration of their various green assets and capabilities, including green intellectual capital and ambidextrous green innovation.     

Antecedents to ambidexterity competency in high technology organizations

High tech organizations confront dual demands of exploring new products/processes and exploiting existing products/processes. Research shows that ambidextrous organizations can better manage these dual demands, but our understanding of the antecedents that lead to ambidexterity is still emerging. In addition, previous research has taken a piecemeal approach to understand ambidexterity and does not fully consider its multilevel nature. This research takes a multilevel perspective and argues 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). After correcting for endogeneity we empirically examine the relationship between these antecedents and ambidexterity competency by collecting multi-level data from 34 high tech business units and 110 exploration and exploitation R&D projects. The results indicate that decision risk and contextual alignment affect ambidexterity competency for high tech organizations. Structural differentiation does not affect ambidexterity competency but has mixed effects on R&D project performance.     

Senior Team Attributes and Organizational Ambidexterity: The Moderating Role of Transformational Leadership

abstract    Organizations capable of pursuing exploration and exploitation simultaneously have been suggested to obtain superior performance. Combining both types of activities and achieving organizational ambidexterity, however, leads to the presence of multiple and often conflicting goals, and poses considerable challenges to senior teams in ambidextrous organizations. This study explores the role of senior team attributes and leadership behaviour in reconciling conflicting interests among senior team members and achieving organizational ambidexterity. Findings indicate that a senior team shared vision and contingency rewards are associated with a firm's ability to combine high levels of exploratory and exploitative innovations. In addition, our study shows that an executive director's transformational leadership increases the effectiveness of senior team attributes in ambidextrous organizations and moderates the effectiveness of senior team social integration and contingency rewards. Hence, our study clarifies how senior executives reconcile conflicting demands and facilitate the balancing of seemingly contradictory forces in ambidextrous organizations. Implications for literatures on senior team attributes, transformational leadership and organizational ambidexterity are discussed.     

供应链伙伴关系、供应链动态能力与企业竞争优势关系的研究

通过分析供应链伙伴关系、供应链动态能力和企业竞争优势之间关系,构建了三者之间的概念模型。其中供应链伙伴关系包括信任和承诺两个维度;供应链动态能力包括运作能力、学习能力、协调能力和重构能力四个维度;企业竞争优势包括财务绩效和非财务绩效等两个维度。利用结构方程分析实证结果表明:供应链伙伴关系对企业竞争优势有正向作用关系;供应链动态能力对企业竞争优势有正向作用关系;供应链伙伴关系对供应链动态能力有正向作用,并且通过供应链动态能力对企业竞争优势有间接作用。     

HRM in dynamic environments: Exploitative,exploratory, and ambidextrous HR architectures

Abstract

The current economic crisis has brought to the fore the need for firms to deal with ambiguity and complexity. Hence, firms need a specific balance between exploration and exploitation in order to keep pace with varying and changing environmental conditions. Hitherto, there is limited research that has examined the nexus of HR architectures, ambidexterity, and environmental dynamics. In this conceptual paper we ask: How do HR architectures serve as a means of balancing exploitative and exploratory learning in different dynamic environments? We explain how exploratory, exploitative, and ambidextrous HR architectures with their embedded HRM systems on the business unit level enable organizations to meet different environmental requirements. Thus, firms in which heterogeneous demands for flexibility and for innovation co-exist need to develop internally differentiated HR architectures. In particular, we elucidate how critical the organization’s ability is to connect different HRM systems to create an ambidextrous HR architecture to find an appropriate balance between exploration and exploitation.