The Curvilinear Relationships Between Top Decision Maker Goal Orientations and Firm Ambidexterity: Moderating Effect of Role Experience

Frontiers in Psychology

Susana C. Santos¹  Jiangpei Xie²  Christopher Pryor³ 

[1] College of Business, Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ, United States;Business Research Unit, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Lisbon, Portugal;Department of Human Resource Management, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Xiasha University Town, Hangzhou, China;Warrington College of Business, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States;

关键词: ambidexterity;    goal orientations;    role experience;    upper echelons theory;    microfoundations;    strategic entrepreneurship;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2021.621688

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

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.

【 授权许可】

CC BY