The Contingent Balance between Network Consistency and Ambidextrous Innovation

Abstract

How to balance the contradiction between exploration innovation and exploitation innovation (ambidextrous innovation) in a department has become the hot subject for the business management theory and its practical research. From the parallel structure perspective, this paper applies social network theory and knowledge management theory to analyze how the consistency between formal and informal networks to balance the paradox between exploration innovation and exploitation innovation, and discusses the moderating role of different knowledge management. This paper collects the empirical data from innovation departments of high-tech enterprises to test the hypotheses. It comes to the conclusions as follows: firstly, the consistency between formal reciprocal/ sequential workflow network and informal consulting network has an inverted U-shaped relationship with ambidextrous innovation; secondly, knowledge exchange & combination and knowledge conflict have positively moderating effects on the relationship above. It shows that the appropriate overlap between formal reciprocal/ sequential workflow network and informal consulting network can balance the paradox of ambidextrous innovation effectively, and efficient knowledge management can enhance this effect. The conclusion refine the path of achieving ambidextrous innovation from the bottom to up by parallel structure from a social network perspective, defines the contingency condition of achieving ambidextrous innovation by parallel structure based on knowledge management theory, and also has an important guide for enterprises to balance the contradiction between exploration innovation and exploitation innovation in a department and form ambidextrous innovation by the consistency between formal and informal networks in the future.