How Do Goal Orientations Affect Organizational Agility? The Mediating Effects of Ambidextrous Operational Capabilities

Abstract

Organizational agility is critical to the firms’ survival and prospects in today's complex environment. Although the firms’ goal orientations regulate their efforts in response to market changes and influence organizational agility, existing studies remain inconclusive on the effects of goal orientations on organizational agility and leave the underlying mechanisms of such effects unclear. In this article, we draw upon the orientation–action—outcome framework to look inside the black box of how two types of goal orientations (i.e., learning and performance goal orientation) affect organizational agility by examining the mediating effects of ambidextrous operational capabilities. We also investigate the moderating effects of competitive intensity on the mediating effects of ambidextrous operational capabilities. Using archival data and two-wave multirespondent survey data from 387 top managers of 129 firms, the results reveal important findings. First, the total impact of learning goal orientation on organizational agility is insignificant, but that of performance goal orientation is significant. Second, mass customization and innovative ambidexterity significantly mediate the indirect impacts of learning goal orientation and performance goal orientation on organizational agility. Third, competitive intensity does not influence the indirect effects of learning goal orientation, whereas it weakens the indirect effects of performance goal orientation. We also conducted the fsQCA, the results of which reinforced and refined the findings of mediation and moderated-mediation analysis. These results provide new insights into the underlying mechanisms through which goal orientations contribute to agility and the boundary condition of these mechanisms as well as various configurations associated with high/low agility.