A Case Study of Digital Innovation Organization Readiness:Hidden Cost for Ambidexterity Performance

Abstract

Cross-department communication barriers will lead to low efficiency and poor-quality work, which is common in most organizations in China. This will bring hidden costs to the organization and even impact long-term performance. In the digital transformation age, organization ambidexterity is more important than ever to obtain short-term and long-term benefits. This case study suggests to combine the ambidextrous and hidden costs theory for outlining a collaborative network communication model (CNCM), in order to investigate the effect between the cross-department communication operation structure and organizational performance. This case study provided data collection by three data sources: 40 interviews of managers and employees, company records, observations over three months. The findings of the field study of this case are that cross-department communication operation structure has an effect on organizational performance and digital innovation. It also suggests that CNCM positively influences organizational exploration and exploitation ability. It can also alleviate cross-department communication obstacles, low efficiency, and poor-quality work.