Identifying the Innovative Tension: A Meta-Analysis on Innovative Firm Behavior, Organizational Ambidexterity and Innovative Performance

Abstract

Purpose – In terms of business activities determining which financial and human resources will use existing knowledge (exploitation) and which will make efforts to discover new knowledge (exploration) creates an innovative tension. Since the choice of innovative action leads to different expectations and different outputs, the cause and consequences of tension will also differ for each firm. Ultimately, the purpose of the study is to reveal the relation amongst innovative firm behavior, organizational ambidexterity, and innovative firm performance in the axis of innovative tension. Design/methodology/approach – In this study, meta-analysis was used to determine the effect size of innovative firm behavior on organizational ambidexterity and the effect size of organizational ambidexterity on innovative performance. To test the hypotheses determined in the research, the studies published since 2000 were reviewed and the appropriate ones were selected within the framework of certain criteria. The determined database is divided into two separate data sets (Dataset 1 consists of 19 studies, 30 effect values, 11246 samples - dataset 2 consists of 22 studies, 49 effect values, 98630 samples). The first data set was used to investigate the relation between innovative firm behavior and organizational ambidexterity and the second data set was used to test the relation amongst organizational ambidexterity and innovative firm performance. Findings – According to the effect size level obtained from the meta-analysis, it was found that innovative firm behavior has a positive and significant effect on organizational ambidexterity and organizational ambidexterity has a positive and significant effect on innovative performance. Discussion – Considering the requirements of the technology era we live in, it is necessary to take into account that innovative attitude and behavior, organizational ambidexterity, and innovative performance network have the power to determine not only the production of new products and services but also the rules of the competition game on the global basis. While the wrong choice to be made at this point will directly affect the life span of the firm, the right one will contribute to the effectiveness of a new actor at the level of macro competition.