Environmental scanning, resource orchestration, and disruptive innovation

Abstract

Environmental scanning is an important way for firms to realize disruptive innovation. However, how environmental scanning impacts disruptive innovation is still unclear. Based on resource orchestration theory and foresight theory, this study divides environmental scanning into prospective scanning and responsive scanning according to scanning time, explores the relationship between two types of environmental scanning and disruptive innovation, and tests the mediating role of resource orchestration and the moderating role of environmental dynamism. The results based on 284 intelligent manufacturing firms show that there are inverted U‐shaped effects not only between prospective scanning and new‐market disruption but also between responsive scanning and low‐end market disruption. Resource orchestration plays a mediating role in the inverted U‐shaped relationships between prospective scanning and new‐market disruption, responsive scanning, and low‐end market disruption. Moreover, environmental dynamism moderates and steepens the inverted U‐shaped relationship between prospective scanning, responsive scanning, and resource orchestration, and the mediating effect of resource orchestration is also moderated by environmental dynamism. The results reveal that environmental scanning can help firms achieve disruptive innovation to a certain extent, and firms must be alert to the “overload trap.”