The Curvilinear Relationships Between Top Decision Maker Goal Orientations and Firm Ambidexterity: Moderating Effect of Role Experience
Ambidextrous firms are those that can simultaneously manage exploitative and explorative innovation, which is why ambidexterity is key for firms that desire to pursue strategic entrepreneurship. Researchers have explored many of the reasons why some firms are more ambidextrous than others. However,...
Main Authors: | , , |
---|---|
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-04-01
|
Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.621688/full |
_version_ | 1818654946582593536 |
---|---|
author | Christopher Pryor Susana C. Santos Susana C. Santos Jiangpei Xie |
author_facet | Christopher Pryor Susana C. Santos Susana C. Santos Jiangpei Xie |
author_sort | Christopher Pryor |
collection | DOAJ |
description | Ambidextrous firms are those that can simultaneously manage exploitative and explorative innovation, which is why ambidexterity is key for firms that desire to pursue strategic entrepreneurship. Researchers have explored many of the reasons why some firms are more ambidextrous than others. However, little attention has been devoted to understanding how attributes of top decision makers can influence their firms' ambidexterity. By drawing on upper echelons theory and goal orientations research, we explain how firms' ambidexterity can be affected by top decision makers' motivations in achievement situations (i.e., goal orientations). Testing our hypotheses on a sample of 274 top decision makers of firms in the United States, we find that top decision makers' learning goal orientation – their desire to take risks and maximize learning–has an inverted U-shaped relationship with ambidexterity while top decision makers' performance prove goal orientation – their desire to demonstrate competence with existing skills – has a U-shaped relationship with ambidexterity. These effects are weaker for top decision makers who have greater role experience. |
first_indexed | 2024-12-17T03:01:52Z |
format | Article |
id | doaj.art-298b1db26cd44e9ba6e600597679cbdf |
institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 1664-1078 |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-12-17T03:01:52Z |
publishDate | 2021-04-01 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | Article |
series | Frontiers in Psychology |
spelling | doaj.art-298b1db26cd44e9ba6e600597679cbdf2022-12-21T22:06:03ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782021-04-011210.3389/fpsyg.2021.621688621688The Curvilinear Relationships Between Top Decision Maker Goal Orientations and Firm Ambidexterity: Moderating Effect of Role ExperienceChristopher Pryor0Susana C. Santos1Susana C. Santos2Jiangpei Xie3Warrington College of Business, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United StatesCollege of Business, Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ, United StatesBusiness Research Unit, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Lisbon, PortugalDepartment of Human Resource Management, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Xiasha University Town, Hangzhou, ChinaAmbidextrous firms are those that can simultaneously manage exploitative and explorative innovation, which is why ambidexterity is key for firms that desire to pursue strategic entrepreneurship. Researchers have explored many of the reasons why some firms are more ambidextrous than others. However, little attention has been devoted to understanding how attributes of top decision makers can influence their firms' ambidexterity. By drawing on upper echelons theory and goal orientations research, we explain how firms' ambidexterity can be affected by top decision makers' motivations in achievement situations (i.e., goal orientations). Testing our hypotheses on a sample of 274 top decision makers of firms in the United States, we find that top decision makers' learning goal orientation – their desire to take risks and maximize learning–has an inverted U-shaped relationship with ambidexterity while top decision makers' performance prove goal orientation – their desire to demonstrate competence with existing skills – has a U-shaped relationship with ambidexterity. These effects are weaker for top decision makers who have greater role experience.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.621688/fullambidexteritygoal orientationsrole experienceupper echelons theorymicrofoundationsstrategic entrepreneurship |
spellingShingle | Christopher Pryor Susana C. Santos Susana C. Santos Jiangpei Xie The Curvilinear Relationships Between Top Decision Maker Goal Orientations and Firm Ambidexterity: Moderating Effect of Role Experience Frontiers in Psychology ambidexterity goal orientations role experience upper echelons theory microfoundations strategic entrepreneurship |
title | The Curvilinear Relationships Between Top Decision Maker Goal Orientations and Firm Ambidexterity: Moderating Effect of Role Experience |
title_full | The Curvilinear Relationships Between Top Decision Maker Goal Orientations and Firm Ambidexterity: Moderating Effect of Role Experience |
title_fullStr | The Curvilinear Relationships Between Top Decision Maker Goal Orientations and Firm Ambidexterity: Moderating Effect of Role Experience |
title_full_unstemmed | The Curvilinear Relationships Between Top Decision Maker Goal Orientations and Firm Ambidexterity: Moderating Effect of Role Experience |
title_short | The Curvilinear Relationships Between Top Decision Maker Goal Orientations and Firm Ambidexterity: Moderating Effect of Role Experience |
title_sort | curvilinear relationships between top decision maker goal orientations and firm ambidexterity moderating effect of role experience |
topic | ambidexterity goal orientations role experience upper echelons theory microfoundations strategic entrepreneurship |
url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.621688/full |
work_keys_str_mv | AT christopherpryor thecurvilinearrelationshipsbetweentopdecisionmakergoalorientationsandfirmambidexteritymoderatingeffectofroleexperience AT susanacsantos thecurvilinearrelationshipsbetweentopdecisionmakergoalorientationsandfirmambidexteritymoderatingeffectofroleexperience AT susanacsantos thecurvilinearrelationshipsbetweentopdecisionmakergoalorientationsandfirmambidexteritymoderatingeffectofroleexperience AT jiangpeixie thecurvilinearrelationshipsbetweentopdecisionmakergoalorientationsandfirmambidexteritymoderatingeffectofroleexperience AT christopherpryor curvilinearrelationshipsbetweentopdecisionmakergoalorientationsandfirmambidexteritymoderatingeffectofroleexperience AT susanacsantos curvilinearrelationshipsbetweentopdecisionmakergoalorientationsandfirmambidexteritymoderatingeffectofroleexperience AT susanacsantos curvilinearrelationshipsbetweentopdecisionmakergoalorientationsandfirmambidexteritymoderatingeffectofroleexperience AT jiangpeixie curvilinearrelationshipsbetweentopdecisionmakergoalorientationsandfirmambidexteritymoderatingeffectofroleexperience |