This article investigates the internationalization process of incubating, parenting, and eventually spinning-off overseas entrepreneurial ventures originating from emerging markets. In a comparative case study of Chinese high-tech firms, we leveraged multiple sources of data to reveal (1) how the exploitation of parent firms’ technological and platform resources enables them to initiate, support, and eventually profit from the international growth of foreign ventures that autonomously engage in the exploration of product and market innovations, and (2) how ambidextrous synergy was created through the continuous exchange, combination, and reconfiguration of knowledge and resources between parent firms and foreign ventures. These findings extend our understanding of how Chinese high-tech firms manage the learning process in overseas venturing. We draw implications of these findings for research and practice.

We define higher semiadditive algebraic K-theory, a variant of algebraic K-theory that takes into account higher semiadditive structure, as enjoyed for example by the $\mathrm {K}(n)$- and $\mathrm {T}(n)$-local categories. We prove that it satisfies a form of the redshift conjecture. Namely, that if $R$ is a ring spectrum of height $\leq n$, then its semiadditive K-theory is of height $\leq n+1$. Under further hypothesis on $R$, which are satisfied for example by the Lubin–Tate spectrum $\mathrm {E}_n$, we show that its semiadditive algebraic K-theory is of height exactly $n+1$. Finally, we connect semiadditive K-theory to $\mathrm {T}(n+1)$-localized K-theory, showing that they coincide for any $p$-invertible ring spectrum and for the completed Johnson–Wilson spectrum $\widehat {\mathrm {E}(n)}$.

Decades of ambidexterity research have gained huge scholarly attention from diverse research areas like marketing, organizational learning, innovation management, supply chain management, strategy, and entrepreneurship. However, it has been observed that past studies do not provide a quantitative assessment of ambidexterity determinants applicable to small and medium firms. In response, this study attempts to address this gap by providing an extensive list of eight determinants that are significantly related to Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) ambidexterity. We employed Random effects meta-analytical procedure to examine the combined effect sizes of each determinant. The analysis was based on 37 empirical publications from 2004 to 2021, involving 8422 SME observations and 48 correlations. The findings of the meta-analysis revealed that all the considered determinants such as Knowledge management, Entrepreneurial orientation, Formalization, Market orientation, Networking, Technological capability, Organization context, and Environmental dynamism are heterogeneous, and they all exert a significant positive impact on ambidexterity.

Firm diversification is a growth strategy that allows firms to launch new products in untapped markets to increase revenue. It is the identified approach where industrial designers can contribute to exploring new tactical assets. The paper analyses the design-oriented diversification of a furniture company in Italy, where Design played a crucial role in positioning new demands. The tool applied to display the current and the feasible product portfolio is the Product Space. The company has leveraged its know-how on bent glass to produce iconic objects, winning prestigious design awards.

A chief executive officer (CEO) acting as the firm's transformational leader is typically viewed as instrumental to corporate entrepreneurship in established firms, but how exactly does a higher level of corporate entrepreneurship come about, given a transformational CEO's actions? We suggest that organizational ambidexterity can function as a core mediating mechanism between transformational CEOs and the observed level of corporate entrepreneurship and that the effectiveness of this mediating process varies as a function of critical contingencies related to characteristics of the top management team (TMT), the environment and the organization's design. Our empirical evidence, based on a sample of 145 Chinese private sector firms, and using three primary sources of data (145 CEOs, 506 TMT members, and 1,981 middle managers), provides support for a moderated mediation process. We find that the mediating pathway from transformational leadership to corporate entrepreneurship through organizational ambidexterity is not significant when boundary conditions are ignored. However, when environmental dynamism, TMT collectivism, and structural differentiation are included as moderators, CEO transformational leadership does affect corporate entrepreneurship via the creation and effective functioning of organizational ambidexterity.

Extant literature remains inconclusive with regard to optimal structural designs for sustaining effective knowledge flows, boosting innovativeness, and achieving superior performance in organizations. We contribute to the ongoing debate on formal, informal, and ambidextrous configurations in the specific context of small high-tech innovators. Adopting an inductive approach to theory building, we explore the factors that account for the variation in knowledge-focused designs across sample firms. In our study, innovative ventures rely on pure formal and informal organizational designs but also attempt to mix both, suggesting that gains from ambidexterity are not ubiquitous. Our analysis unveils that the pursuit of a given structural configuration results from a set of operating contingencies and a deliberate managerial effort to align firm idiosyncrasies with desired strategic outcomes. We advance a grounded theory of knowledge-focused organizational design in small high-tech innovators and formulate propositions that may be tested in future inquiries in the field.

One challenge within idea management of the front end of the design process is the handling of radical ideas, meaning ideas with a high degree of novelty. Companies are approaching radical and incremental ideas frequently with the same methods, although many reasoned claims exists for treating ideas differently according to the degree of novelty. The paper aims to address the fact that ambidexterity does not play any specific role in the front end. Therefore, a framework of an extended idea process model based on the idea of ambidexterity is shown and initial test results are presented.

The concepts of high-velocity, complexity and interdependency are nowadays vividly discussed in design-led innovation management. Design organisations seek to manage innovation in a more dynamic way to ensure competitive advantage and long-term competitiveness. Contextual ambidexterity is advised to be a dynamic capability that can facilitate firms to effectively manage incremental and radical innovation alike. This paper proposes an approach that focuses on the individual and the underlying thinking which bases its foundations on ambidextrous leadership, abductive reasoning and strategic fit.

The purpose of this study was to examine contextual factors (empowerment, ownership, and accountability) that facilitate and promote exploration and exploitation behavior. Data were obtained from an American manufacturing company using employee and supervisor surveys (n = 297). Findings indicate that empowerment improved exploitation and that when employees perceived they would have to be accountable for their actions, employees who felt empowered showed lower gains in exploration behaviors compared with those who felt less empowered; in contrast, those having feelings of ownership exhibited higher gains in exploration behavior than those who scored low in ownership. Although ownership was theorized to have a positive effect on exploitative behavior, we found evidence for its negative effects instead. We contribute to the limited individual-level ambidexterity literature by providing empirical evidence on the effects of contextual factors on ambidextrous behavior. This knowledge could help firms better manage employee behavior and implement effective supervisory oversight.

Some critical limitations of prior research on organizational controls stem from the scant theory identifying the coexistence of contradictions and interrelations between differing organizational controls and exploring how the contradictory but interrelated controls affect innovation modes. To address this gap, this research links Hitt’s internal control system framework and the ambidexterity perspective by building on their focus on the interplay and tensions between different organizational controls. Using survey data from 182 Chinese firms in innovation-intensive industries, the results show that besides the independent use of strategic control, both the combined and balance use of strategic and financial controls are important for internal innovation. For firms specializing in cooperative innovation, however, financial control is more effective, and the combined use of strategic and financial controls has negative effect on cooperative innovation. These findings contribute to our understanding of organizational control itself and its connection to the ambidexterity perspective and innovation theory.

Strategic ambidexterity has been under researched in the context of Chinese outward foreign direct investment (FDI). An ambidextrous FDI, balancing between exploratory and exploitive activities, is strategically desirable but managerially challenging. We examine the role of top management team (TMT) functional diversity in influencing Chinese firms’ degree of FDI ambidexterity, and its boundary conditions in relation to the informal and formal institutional environments within which the TMT operates. Based on a panel of Chinese outward-investing manufacturing firms, our empirical analyses show that a marginal positive effect of TMT functional diversity on a firm's FDI ambidexterity is strengthened by the social faultline presence in the firm's TMT, but is weakened by the development of formal institutions in the firm's external environment.

This paper focuses on the importance of dynamic capabilities in shaping the nature of international strategies of emerging market multinationals from mid-range economies. We argue that dynamic capabilities theory provides an insightful approach to understanding the internationalization of emerging market multinationals and their strategic choices. Drawing on dynamic capability theory and unpacking dynamic capabilities into four distinct but related dimensions or facets, we develop a typology of three internationalization strategies available to emerging market multinationals in their international expansion: sequential international ambidexterity (from exploitation to exploration, and vice versa) and structural international ambidexterity (simultaneous exploration and exploitation). Success factors associated with each of the ambidextrous internationalization strategies are also considered. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of the dynamic capabilities framework for theoretical implications and fruitful areas for future research endeavors.

The literature on capability development has focussed on either the content or process of capability development. Such a partial explanation of the capability development phenomenon has created some flaws in the literature. This paper argues that integrating the content and process of capability development is the way ahead in theorising in this field. Analysis of the methodological development in parallel to theory development reveals the critical role of microprocesses in such integration. To develop an integrative view of capability development we propose a conceptualisation of capability development processes through internal and external strategic fit and emphasise the role of knowledge and innovation processes. We also argue that a critical realism approach is of high relevance to researching such an integrative view.