Study On The Relationships Among Corporate Manager's Design Thinking,Ambidextrous Learning And Ambidextrous Innovation

China is transforming from “Made in China” to “Innovated in China”.Innovation is becoming the most important element in the Chinese economic development.Hence,it is a field that urging to study about how to improve the innovation capability of Chinese enterprises.Design is a primary driver of innovation.The emphasis of innovation raises up the status of design in business strategy and corporate management.Subsequently,theory of design thinking becomes a critical management innovation in recent years.Nevertheless,the studies of the relationship among design thinking,organization and strategy are insufficient.They could not provide a solid ground for the systematic analysis on why and how to apply design thinking in a company.And this fact induces the gap between the business world and academia.Because of this gap,the core questions of design thinking studies become “What could design thinking bring to enterprises” and “How could design thinking affect enterprises”.This paper borrows the theory of organizational ambidexterity to explain the questions above by taking the lens of manager's ambidexterity.Based on the thinking—action—performance effect path as the theoretical analysis framework,this research proposes and empirically proves that design thinking is significantly helpful for the manager to balance and synthesize exploration and exploitation.Ambidextrous learning functions as a mediator between design thinking and ambidextrous innovation.In addition,this study examines the moderating effects of environmental complexity on the relationships between the main research factors.The main conclusions are:1.Design thinking has significantly positive impacts on both ambidextrous learning and ambidextrous innovation.In particular,design thinking significantly influences exploratory learning,exploitative learning,the balance dimension of ambidextrous learning,the combined dimension of ambidextrous learning,breakthrough innovation,incremental innovation and the combined dimension of ambidextrous innovation.2.Ambidextrous learning has significantly positive impacts on ambidextrous innovation.In particular,exploratory learning,exploitative learning,the combined dimension and the balance dimension of ambidextrous learning have positive influences on breakthrough innovation respectively.Exploratory learning,exploitative learning,the combined dimension of ambidextrous learning have positive influences on incremental innovation respectively.Exploitative learning and the balance dimension of ambidextrous learning have positive influences on the balance dimension of ambidextrous innovation respectively.3.Ambidextrous learning mediates the relationship between design thinking and ambidextrous innovation.In particular,exploratory learning,exploitative learning and the combined dimension of ambidextrous learning have significant mediating effects.4.Environmental complexity positively moderates the relationships between design thinking and ambidextrous learning and the relationships between ambidextrous learning and ambidextrous innovation.However,the moderating effect on the relationships between design thinking and ambidextrous innovation could not be found.One originality is that the article develops a new measurement scale of design thinking.It provides a foundation for the operation and the future empirical studies of design thinking.The other main originality of this study is that it borrows the theory of organizational ambidexterity to build up the relationships between design thinking and ambidexterity,bringing the lens down to the individual level to explain the outcome of design thinking.This study provides new insights for organizational ambidexterity,especially in the stream of manager's ambidexterity.And it also constructs a new path for the enterprises for building manager's ambidexterity.And also,it applies empirical research to prove the relationships,which offers a breakthrough on the research method of design thinking relevant studies.Finally,the construction of the relationships between design thinking and ambidexterity could probably answer the questions on why and how design thinking could bring benefits to organizations.It helps enterprises and managers to enhance their understanding and acceptance towards design thinking.