Towards an integrated view of ambidexterity: an empirical investigation

Within the context of ambidexterity, this paper focuses on the tension between radical and incremental innovation and has a twofold aim: firstly, it investigates whether an ambidextrous organization for innovation can be represented in a more integrated way as a second order construct reflected by both contextual and structural approaches; secondly, it examines whether internal networking for knowledge exchange mediates the relationship between the ambidextrous organization and its ability to pursue high level of innovation ambidexterity. Structural equation modelling is employed to analyze primary data from a survey of 185 firms; results show that the ambidextrous organization can be meaningfully described by a higher-order structure and internal networking for knowledge exchange partially mediates the relationship between the ambidextrous organization and the innovation ambidexterity. This paper makes an important contribution to ambidexterity thanks to high-order modelling of the construct and the attempt to show the mediation role of internal networking.