An Empirical Study On The Impact Of Boundary-spanning Search On Organizational Ambidexteriyt Capacity

In the context of open innovation, more and more enterprises prefer to obtain externalheterogeneity resources in order to remedy resource endowments and capabilities structuraldefects, and boundary-spanning search (BSS) has become the third path to improve technicalcapacity after indigenous innovation and external acquisitions. The passive situation has notfundamentally reversed for Chinese enterprises and industry development, even though wepromote university-industry collaboration (UIC) since1990s, which be seen as the typicalway of external knowledge search. The Chinese enterprises still confront low-technicalequilibrium dilemma, such as low knowledge conversion, the imbalance of technical demandand supply, and function dislocation of research institutions, which arouse the commonreflection of the academia and business community. However, the current studies profile thephenomenon and trends of boundary-spanning search, there is rarely theoretical explanationsabout the relations between technical capacity and boundary-spanning search, especially therelative empirical studies are even insufficient.In order to search and integrate external innovation resources, to achieve the fundamentalobjective of capacity enhancement in different aspects, this thesis focus on the core questionof whether or not the BSS affect the organization ambidextrous capacity (OAC), and how itinfluences. We deconstruct the dimension and content of the BSS behavior, and build themechanism model among the BSS, OAC and business performance using literature researchand multiple case study method. The following studies will further divide into threesub-problems:(1) Whether or not the different dimension of BSS has an effect on the OAC,and how it influences in the realistic context?(2) How does the BSS coordinate the structuralrelationship between exploratory and exploitative capability so as to improve the enterprise’sinnovation and financial performance?(3) Whether or not the OAC has different growthmode with special trends and characteristics under the action of external resources? And howdo the BSS and absorptive capacity affects the growth of OAC? We design the followingthree sub-studies to answer these questions progressively.The Study1contraposes Proposition one proposed by case studies. The impact of theBSS on OAC was investigated using structural equation model, so does the relation betweenthe exploratory and exploitative capability. Firstly, we deconstruct the enterprise’ BSS in theorganization and technical dimensions based on the perspective of innovation capabilitystructure, and verify the scientificity and rationality; Secondly, the different impacts of theBSS on OAC were investigated; Finally, we analysis the mutual relation between exploratory and exploitative capability, which lay the foundation for the following part based on thestructural perspective.The Study2contraposes Proposition two proposed by case studies. The effects of BBSand OAC on corporate performance were investigated by using hierarchical regressionanalysis, as well as the mediating effect of OAC structure for the further study. The thesispropose the hypothesis between the BSS and OAC structure through literature review andtheoretical derivation, and verify them using the survey data; The causes and results of OACstructure were demonstrated, and tested the different impact on the financial and innovationperformance; Further studies examined the mediating effect of OAC structure on BBS andenterprise performance, and identified the critical path through OAC structure.The Study3contraposes Proposition three proposed by case studies. The thesis identifiesthe different trends and characteristics of OAC by constructing a latent growth mixture model(GMM), and analyzes the effects of BSS and absorptive capacity in the different modes. Onthe one hand, We build the latent GMM of enterprise’s technical capacity, and test thesubclass growth mode in the overall sample, and portray the growth trends and characteristicsof the different modes. On the other hand, the thesis verifies the impacts of search depth andbreadth on the OAC growth, and further analysis of the interaction effect of search feature andabsorption capacity.Drawing on the above research, some conclusions, which also constitute the contributionsof this paper, can be presented as follows:(1) The BSS behavior of Chinese enterprises mainly include two boundaries of theorganization and technology in the realistic context, which can be further divided into thetechnology-driven and market-driven BSS, the generic technology-oriented and producttechnology-oriented BSS. The searching behavior of the two dimensions show differentimpact on the OAC, in which the technology-driven and generic technology-oriented BSShave significant positive effect on exploratory capability, while market-driven, generictechnology-oriented and product technology-oriented BSS show significant positive effect onexploitative capability. The OAC are not absolutely exclusive or irreconcilable, whileexploratory capability has a significant positive impact on exploitative capability. Theseconclusions break through the theoretical assumption of the OAC relations in March (1991),and expand the research perspective and dimension of organization search theory in theChinese context, which enrich the empirical studies about ambidextrous organizations.(2) The BSS is the important antecedent variables to coordinate the structure ofexploratory and exploitative capability, while the two dimensions show different effects. The technology-driven and product technology-oriented BSS are conducive to promoting the OACbalance, and technology-driven and generic technology-oriented BSS have significantpositive effect on the OAC interaction relation. There exists a significant positive impact ofthe OAC balance and interaction relation on innovative performance, while the pursuit of theOAC balance will produce negative effect on corporate financial performance. The OACstructure played a complete or partial intermediary role between the BSS and corporateperformance, but the effect pathway is the same among the different dimensions. The studyfirstly proposes and verifies the internal mechanism between the BSS and OAC structure,reveals the cause reason of the binary tension inside the organization, and expand thetheoretical and empirical research in the field of ambidextrous organizations.(3) The OAC may have three different dynamic growth trajectories in the effort ofexternal innovation resources. The growth process of exploratory capability exist “Growthmode” and “U-shaped mode”, but the exploitative capability has “Stable mode” and “Growthmode” two potential subclasses, and the starting level and growth rate of enterpriseexploitative capability are superior than exploratory capability. The search breadth hasequally positive impact on enterprises exploratory and exploitative capability, but the searchdepth only for exploitative capability. The absorptive capacity has a significant positiveimpact on technical capabilities growth, so do its interaction terms with search breadth anddepth, which reflect its function to promote capabilities growth and ease the excessive searchbehavior. This thesis firstly reveals the subclasses mode of the OAC under the action ofexternal resources, and verifies the effect of the search feature and absorptive capacity in thethree modes, which enrich the empirical studies of the OAC growth from the researchperspective and methods.