Exploration Of New Opportunities Research Articles

Leader Readiness in Facing the Challenges of a VUCA Business Environment: Case Study of Generation Z

The research aims to identify whether leadership in various styles contexts such as entrepreneurship, empowering, operational, and architectural leadership impacts Generation Z's ability to deal with volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) in their work environment. The research method in this study is a literature review to identify dimensions of the competence of Generation Z in the four leadership styles in the VUCA context. The results of this literature review research indicate that empowering leadership plays a significant role in strengthening the skills of VUCA Generation Z. This approach encourages delegation of authority, supports development skills, and empowers Generation Z individuals to interact effectively within a VUCA environment filled with uncertainty and complexity. Apart from that, entrepreneurial leadership has also been proven to impact the abilities of VUCA Generation Z with a focus on innovation, controlled risk-taking, and exploration of new opportunities. Operational leadership emphasizes efficiency and orderliness and positively contributes to Generation Z's VUCA skills, although the VUCA environment is often uncertain. Lastly, architectural leadership focusing on organizational design and strategic vision helps Generation Z individuals understand the big vision and adapt to changes in the context. The implication is that by integrating these four leadership philosophies into the analysis, the study will aid in gaining a more accurate understanding of Generation Z's mentality. Organizations can be better equipped to handle the difficulties of the volatile and uncertain business climate by learning about the traits and expectations of Generation Z and cultivating the right kind of leadership. The mindset of Generation Z can be better understood. In addition, Generation Z must arm themselves with greater creativity and innovation to meet the challenges of an increasingly complicated business environment.

YES: leading a Youth Employment Service towards increasing impact

Learning outcomes The learning outcomes for this case study are as follows: learning outcome 1: evaluate the environmental context of Youth Employment Service (YES) and ascertain whether YES is a social enterprise. Students will provide an analysis of what is happening around the business, and why addressing youth unemployment is an urgent matter to address; learning outcome 2: apply basic financial principles to evaluate the basic profit and loss statement of YES. In a business management class, students need to recognise the importance of applying basic financial principles to ensure the financial sustainability of a business. Therefore, the objective is for students to evaluate the basic profit and loss statement in the case’s exhibit. The focus is not necessarily on the numbers, but rather on the insight that students will gain into the organisation’s strengths and development areas; and learning outcome 3: create recommendations by considering the exploitation of existing opportunities and the exploration of new opportunities to innovate. Students should understand the principles of organisational ambidexterity and provide suggestions on how they can be used by organisations to reshape their desirable future. Case overview/synopsis On 31 March 2022, Leanne Emery Hunter, the chief operating officer of the YES, was considering how YES could increase their impact. Hunter considered how to convince more corporations to sponsor their efforts in creating work experiences for South African youth. In addition to exploiting these efforts that they were already involved with, YES could explore new opportunities to increase their impact, such as focusing on the community hubs and the innovative products they were developing. Expanding YES’s community hubs to serve as support to the youth would require a capital investment in technology and specific skills within the next six months. Hunter, therefore, faced the dilemma of managing the tensions between focusing on YES’s existing offering, which had a social impact, while paying attention to secure their future by focusing on the financial sustainability and expansion of YES. Its ceremonial inauguration in March 2018 was ushered by President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa, followed by its registration in October 2018. YES was challenged to look for new ways of creating a proactive growth strategy. YES had a social mission to address youth unemployment, students will, however, need to ascertain whether YES is a social enterprise. The case shares financial results and students have an opportunity to calculate profit and loss and offer recommendations on the financial viability of YES while fulfilling their social mission of contributing to youth employment. Students must give recommendations to resolve the dilemma of Hunter in managing the tension between their existing social impact and the future financial sustainability of the business. Complexity academic level The case is suitable for post-graduate courses in business management in business administration programmes. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Tomorrow is already here: Exploring how corporate foresight can contribute to ambidexterity

AbstractCorporate foresight involves strategically exploring multiple potential futures and serves as a tool to guide organizational decision‐making processes. Despite its significance, a predominant focus on immediate, short‐term issues often characterizes the operational mindset of many companies. As a result, companies frequently encounter challenges in achieving organizational ambidexterity—the ability to balance and leverage both the exploitation of current capabilities and the exploration of new opportunities in the future. In this paper, we propose a theoretical investigation of corporate foresight. We develop a conceptual framework that delineates different relationships between corporate foresight and organizational ambidexterity, providing a structured approach to understand how these concepts interact and influence each other. Our framework proposes three ways corporate foresight can significantly enhance ambidexterity within organizations. First, corporate foresight can be pivotal in identifying and analyzing future trends and disruptions, which can inform strategic decision‐making. Secondly, corporate foresight can better align an organization's long‐term strategic goals and short‐term operational objectives, thus enhancing ambidexterity. Finally, corporate foresight can bridge different organizational units, promoting collaboration and knowledge sharing, aiding in developing a holistic approach to strategic planning that encompasses daily operational excellence and future‐oriented strategic posture.

A socio-economic characterization of Tuscan Archipelago’s artisanal fisheries: Status quo, challenges and new business opportunities

Artisanal fisheries in the Mediterranean are suffering from a decades-long crisis, and urgent interventions are needed to reverse this trend. Despite the increasingly recognized importance of the human dimension of fisheries, socio-economic data on Mediterranean artisanal fisheries are lacking. To address this shortage, this paper offers a socio-economic snapshot of artisanal fisheries operating in the Tuscan Archipelago (GSA 9). Information was collected through semi-structured interviews based on an opportunistic + snowball sampling strategy, with questionnaires reviewed by a panel of 10 experts following the Delphi technique. Information was gathered on fishers, fishing activities, gears, seasonality, catches of alien and thermophilic species, commercial destination of the catch and fishers’ opinions on the main challenges and opportunities in the sector. The results show an artisanal fishing sector facing severe crisis, reduced catches, conflicts with the recreational sector, scarce renewal of both human and technical capital, as well as a general reluctance to explore new business pathways. Yet, many fishers recognized the need for change and showed some early attempts to diversify their sea-related income sources. However, a high discrepancy was observed between the desire and the actual implementation of strategies to strengthen livelihoods and diversify. Efforts are needed to remove the obstacles that prevent the amelioration of artisanal fishers’ businesses and the exploration of new opportunities for managing, protecting and adequately valorizing local marine resources. This goal could be achieved through the establishment of synergies between the fishing and tourism sectors, if the socio-ecological sustainability of artisanal fisheries is sought, both in the Tuscan Archipelago and at other sites.

Making a difference: Design-driven intrapreneurship at the UN Refugee Agency

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), a large, global organization, provides vital services and advocacy for millions of displaced persons around the world within a complex and unique mandate. To meet increasing demands in creative ways while fostering a culture of intrapreneurship, the organization has set up the Innovation Fellowship Programme, a learning initiative. This article examines how design may be used to foster intrapreneurship within large organizations. Through this single-case study we examine capabilities identified through mixed-methods within the context of an intrapreneurial process. Mapping abilities between individual vs. collective and exploration vs. exploitation dimensions enabled building a design-driven, stepwise intrapreneurial process model based on effectuation principles, recognizing the causation factors at play. Enabling structures and early, deep embeddedness of the design approaches, tools and methods have been found to enable success in developing intrapreneurial capabilities. Recognizing the importance of processes in applying design within organizations, this article maps out identified intrapreneurial capabilities to individual and collective orientations and the continuum between exploration and exploitation. Through a stepwise, design-driven process modelling, the article joins the competing logics and practices of effectuation and exploration of new opportunities with causation and the exploitation of existing resources, building on individual and collective capabilities and ambidexterity. Large, global and complex organizations have multiple challenges in suffusing design practices within their structure, capabilities and processes. While unleashing the potential of individual intrapreneurs is seen as important, the knowledge of how to create conducive structures, enable organizational processes and attend to individual capability build-up remains elusive, warranting attention. The article contributes to understanding how design can enable and enhance intrapreneurship in large global organizations through facilitating structures, developing intrapreneurial capabilities and modelling conducive processes.

The moderating effect of adaptability on the relationship between cognitive social capital and innovation capacity

Purpose The purpose of this study is to analyze the moderating effect of adaptability on the relationship between cognitive social capital and innovation capacity in companies in the tourism sector. The study aims to contribute to a better understanding of the direct and indirect linkage generated between these variables. Design/methodology/approach The research was designed under the quantitative approach, and an empirical study was carried out by applying a questionnaire to 300 companies located in Arequipa, Perú. Data processing was conducted using partial least squares structural equation modeling using Smart PLS software. Findings The results demonstrate the existence of a positive and significant direct relationship between cognitive social capital and innovation capacity. Furthermore, it was found that adaptability moderates this relationship, improving the results. The study shows that shared goals and culture facilitate the transfer of knowledge, which allows the exploration of new opportunities, and that the accommodation of business resources enables companies to respond quickly to new market requirements, promoting the capacity for innovation. Practical implications Organizations operate in an environment of intense competition. Therefore, developing the capacity for innovation is essential to stay competitive. Managers must strengthen cognitive relationships by sharing objectives and culture with their contacts, in addition to developing the ability to respond to market changes. This will stimulate the creation of new products and services. Originality/value This document adds value to the literature on social capital and innovation, demonstrating the importance of adaptability and its moderating effect on the relationship between cognitive social capital and innovation capacity. This has not been explored before. The research shows how these three variables act synergistically in a model, improving results, which is essential to achieve the competitiveness of companies in the tourism sector of an emerging country.

Strategic leadership in liminal space: Framing exploration of digital opportunities at hierarchical interfaces

AbstractResearch SummaryWe investigate how strategic leaders of an incumbent firm frame exploration of digital opportunities at the interfaces of organizational hierarchy. Digital technologies create an unbounded array of opportunities that may pose challenges to the strategic coherence of corporate entrepreneurship activity. Our analysis reveals that top management teams (TMTs) adopt a paradoxical framing of exploration, thereby creating a liminal space with unstable boundaries between exploration activities aligned with core resources (i.e., convergent) and those perceived as divergent. We show that middle managers (MMs) skillfully navigate this space by combining framing with substantive and symbolic actions to blur the boundaries of exploration. Drawing on our findings, we theorize the role of framing at the interfaces between the TMT and MMs in setting boundaries for exploration.Managerial SummaryThe process of digital transformation can be overwhelming for established companies as managers encounter a myriad of new opportunities. Our study of a large telecommunications company found that both senior and MMs play important roles in guiding the development of new digital businesses. Senior managers encourage creative thinking and promote exploring multiple innovation opportunities. However, they also set boundaries to prevent innovation activities from becoming too risky by venturing into very distant domains. This contradictive requirement creates a “gray zone” for MMs to imaginatively use their skills to navigate restrictions without compromising exploration of new opportunities. This approach involves both top‐down and bottom‐up communication between senior and MMs that helps avoid short‐sightedness and overspending when it comes to innovating with digital technologies.

Examining the relationship between substance use and exploration-exploitation behavior in young adults.

Substance use is characterized by reward processing dysregulation and cognitive control deficits. One area of research that remains relatively unexplored is the relationship between substance use and exploration-exploitation trade-offs, which involve a continuum from switching (exploration) to perseverative (exploitation). In dynamic, volatile environments, exploitation of well-known options can lead to habit-driven perseveration, and exploration of new opportunities can produce new information that may enhance one's future state. The primary aim was to investigate the relationship between regular substance use and spontaneous eyeblink rate (EBR) on exploration-exploitation behavior. Young adults (N = 83) aged 18-23 completed a single laboratory session. A dynamic foraging task was used to characterize exploration/exploitation behavior. Substance use was defined using the Externalizing Spectrum Inventory-Brief Form. Dopamine levels were operationalized using spontaneous EBR. The primary outcome was proportion of switch choices on the foraging task, which reflects a continuum of exploitation (low values) to exploration (high values) behavior. A linear mixed-effects regression was conducted to examine the effect of substance use and EBR on the proportion of switch trials. Results demonstrated a significant negative interaction between substance use and EBR on proportion of switch trials (p < .001). Participants with regular substance use and low EBR showed decreased switch choices, indicative of increased exploitation, compared to those with higher EBR. EBR was positively associated with proportion of switch trials (p = .032) and thus greater exploration. The relationship between substance use and increased exploitation in young adults appears specific to those with low EBR. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Mitigating the tension in pursuit of operational ambidexterity: The roles of knowledge development and bricolage

Managers across the supply chain are expected to meet customers’ ever-changing needs (exploration of new opportunities) by employing innovative approaches, while operations people are inclined towards enhancing efficiency and productivity (exploitation of current practices). However, little is known about how firms manage this paradoxical tension in meeting the conflicting objectives of operations (in meeting existing demand) and supply chain management (in fulfilling future demand) through the simultaneous pursuit of explorative and exploitative activities. To address this issue, we explore the roles of the supply chain knowledge development process (SCKDP) and bricolage in mitigating the tension between exploration and exploitation. We use a survey to collect data from large-scale firms operating in north-western India to test the research model. The empirical results generally support our hypothesis that SCKDP is significantly related to bricolage. Both SCKDP and bricolage positively affect the simultaneous pursuit of explorative and exploitative operational activities, which in turn have a significant impact on supply chain performance in terms of cycle time, supply chain relationships, and financial measures.

Linking organisational commitment with continuous learning through peripheral vision and procedural memory

Under some circumstances such as the lack of commitment of peers or the imposition of excessive authority, many employees tend to turn a blind eye to either the development of new, more effective procedures or recognise that new or modified customer needs have developed. In these situations, organisational commitment is a preliminary step not only to the effective implementation of current procedures but also to questioning values of the organisation and future needs of customers. This study proposes that organisational commitment helps alleviate these problems by maintaining an ambidextrous perspective between procedural memory and peripheral vision to promote continuous learning. This research has therefore been conducted to explain both conceptually and empirically how peripheral vision could interact with and influence procedural memory, and hence facilitate continuous learning (CL) within the business. While peripheral vision is often associated with developing and supporting knowledge structures for the exploration of new opportunities and with identifying and addressing new clients, many consider these knowledge structures as examples of organisational routines and procedures, and thus as aspects of the ‘procedural memory’ of an organisation. To contribute to the understanding of these relationships, this study addresses two questions: (1) Are outcomes of CL processes within the organisation determined by the presence of organisational procedural memory – both skills and knowledge, and (2) Does an improved peripheral vision result in higher levels of learning? After using PLS-SEM on a sample of 203 employees of Spanish banks, our findings support the theory that peripheral vision facilitates the emergence of new and unconventional behaviours within a culture, which in turn has a positive effect on the firm’s continuous learning.

Organizational Learning and Strategic Positioning in Telecommunication Industry in Kenya

The telecommunication industry is continuing to change and mounting a lot of pressure towards efficiency in the business world enabling exploration of new opportunities in the rapidly widening digital environment. The fast changing environment has led the industry to focus on developing organization learning which guarantees future success in meeting the fast changing telecommunication market. The study focused on organizational learning on strategic positioning in telecommunication industry. This study adopted a descriptive design. The target population for this study comprised of 188 strategic planning managers at customer care centers and Chief Executive Officers at the head offices of the four mobile and fixed network operators in Kenya namely; Safaricom Limited, Airtel Kenya, Telkom Kenya and Equitel Kenya. The study used Census to collect the data from the four mobile operators. Primary and Secondary data was used in this study. Primary data was collected using a questionnaire administered to respondents through drop and pick method. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics was used in this study. The study established that continuous learning had influence on strategic positioning of telecommunications industries in Kenya. The results confirmed that telecommunications industries that practiced continuous learning based on innovation had strategic positioning advantage than those organizations that do not. This means that improvement on continuous learning led to strategic positioning in telecommunication industry in Kenya. This study concludes that organizational learning was statistically significant. The study recommends that the communication authority should lobby for application of the most recent technology by its members for use by the research and development department in conjunction with the ICT ministry.

Top management team time horizon blending and organizational ambidexterity

We focus on the strategic implications of executive time horizons on a top management team. We argue that time horizon mean and diversity individually and interactively influence organizational ambidexterity, that is, a firm’s joint exploitation of current competencies and exploration of new opportunities. Drawing on the chief executive officer and top management team interface literature, we propose that effective CEO temporal leadership will enhance the joint effects of top management team time horizon mean and diversity on organizational ambidexterity. We tested our hypotheses by conducting multiple runs of surveys on a sample of 146 Chinese small- and medium-sized firms. Our study contributes to upper echelons theory and temporal research on strategy, being the first to examine the strategic consequences of top management team time horizon composition.

Incremental and 'radical' innovation in an emergent country automotive subsidiary: is there any organisational ambidexterity there

Organisational ambidexterity is the capacity to simultaneously perform 'exploitation' and 'exploration', that is to exploit existing skills, for instance through incremental innovation, without abandoning the exploration of new opportunities, e.g., through radical or major innovation. This paper aims to analyse how an emergent country automotive subsidiary organises itself for innovation and undertook exploration and exploitation efforts in the context of a multinational group over time. Research was done from a single retrospective, qualitative study. Results showed the existence of 'parallel structures', 'contextual ambidexterity' and 'temporal balancing' for ambidexterity. The relation between organisational ambidexterity and the trajectory of the subsidiary concerning international division of innovative labour was analysed, thus providing a conceptual contribution in order to understand the dynamics of organisation for innovation and, particularly, ambidexterity in the context of multinational companies. Managerial and theoretical implications are discussed especially regarding the impacts of organisational ambidexterity on subsidiaries' capability upgrading processes.

Antecedents and effects of individual ambidexterity – A cross-level investigation of exploration and exploitation activities at the employee level

For long-term success, companies need to adapt to technological and environmental change. Organizational ambidexterity, which balances the exploration of new opportunities with the exploitation of existing capabilities, is increasingly viewed as a promising approach to tackle this challenge. However, despite the important role of individuals for firms' ambidexterity and performance, evidence on how exploration of new opportunities and exploitation of existing capabilities are triggered at an individual level and on their subsequent effects on overall performance is still lacking. Accordingly, the present research shifts the focus from organizational ambidexterity to individual ambidexterity. Based on data from 415 employees, the results of structural equation modeling show that both organizational architecture and organizational context can be used to induce individual ambidexterity. Furthermore, positive performance effects of individual ambidexterity across different organizational levels, namely the team and department levels, are confirmed.

A cross-level investigation of exploration and exploitation activities at employee level

For long-term success, companies are in need to adapt to technological and environmental change. More and more view organizational ambidexterity, the exploration of new opportunities and the exploitation of existing capabilities, as a promising approach to tackle this challenge. While prior research focused on organizational ambidexterity, present research has shifted the focus towards individual ambidexterity. Despite the important role of individuals for achieving ambidexterity and performance at a firm level, the understanding of how exploration of new opportunities and the exploitation of existing capabilities is triggered at an individual level and how it subsequently affects overall performance is still sketchy at best. Based on data from 415 employees, results from structural equation modeling show that both organizational architecture and organizational context can be used to induce individual ambidexterity. Furthermore, the findings of this study also confirm positive performance effects of individual ambidexterity across different organizational levels, namely the team and the department level.

The Effects of Leaders'Regulatory Focus on Exploration and Exploitation of Employees

To achieve viability in the long-term, organizations have to face continuous and at times abrupt environmental change. Organizational ambidexterity, the simultaneous engagement in exploration of new opportunities and exploitation of existing capabilities, is widely considered as promising approach to master these challenges. Recently, researchers refocused their attention to the micro- foundations of ambidexterity. In spite of the essential part played by individuals in reaching ambidexterity at the company level, the present grasp of how individual exploration and exploitation is initiated remains rather ambiguous. Employing an experimental design, the reactions of 492 employees demonstrate that the psychological alignments of superiors, namely their regulatory focus type, significantly influences the decision to engage in exploration or exploitation behavior. Thus, corresponding regulatory focus aligned management can be utilized to foster individual level exploring and exploiting. Moreover, the data al...

Cool Factory: Recurrent Change as Strategy for Advantage

This field study at a project led by a pioneering design studio builds theory about how cool factories reconfigure dynamic capabilities to sustain their positions as avant-garde leaders. Working from three years of participant observation and unstructured interviews with key informants, I draw on the resource-based-view in strategy to observe and explain an organizational response to imitation that mirrors the wider creative industry imperative to recurrently change the offering. The study reveals that members exploit slack and simultaneously engage in the exploration of new opportunities on the same project, which is recognizable in routines for slack cultivation, adaptation and creative experimentation.

Modulatory Effects of Positive Mood on Cognition: Lessons From Attention and Error Monitoring

The importance of positive mood for health and well-being is a truism. However, we still lack clear understanding of the nature and range of modulatory effects created by positive mood on cognition in humans. Here, we briefly review two recent research lines that have attempted to address this question systematically. Specifically, research on attention has explored the boundaries of the so-called broadening of attention with positive mood. Likewise, effects of positive mood on error monitoring have been scrutinized lately. The new empirical findings gathered in these two separate research domains concur on the assumption that positive mood is not merely adding noise to cognition. Instead, this mood state seems to provide the organism with meaningful (internal) information, which allows for timely and flexible exploration of new opportunities in the (external) environment and alters the motivational significance of negative events, such as response errors, in a rather flexible way. As such, these new findings provide information about the existence of complex interaction effects between positive mood and cognition and may help, in turn, to better appraise the actual role and function of this protective mood state for health and cognition.

Fostering Innovation Performance from a Sustainable Development Perspective: Towards a Research Agenda

The benefits of sustainability-driven innovation and their impacts on performance under the three dimensions of economic, social and environmental performance has often not been adequately captured. This paper acknowledges the gap and presents a conceptual framework that helps identify the determinants towards fostering innovation performance and explains the relationship with sustainability practices through the pursuit of the exploitation of existing competencies and exploration of new opportunities from a sustainable development perspective. Their eventual impact on innovation performance is assessed from the dynamic capabilities theory perspective. The research contributes to the field of sustainable innovation and provides a roadmap for organisations to bridge the sustainability gap. It provides a holistic framework that examines the relationships of stakeholder sustainability orientation, market orientation, exploration and exploitation regarding innovation performance and its eventual impact on sustainable development. The research helps to confirm that the pursuit of a sustainability agenda is indeed worthwhile for organisations.

Hire, Fire, or Train: Innovation and Human Capital Responses to Recessions

Research summaryWe examine how firms' relative emphasis on exploration and exploitation influence their human capital responses to recessions. We hypothesize and find that the higher the focus on exploration, the more firms invest in training, the more likely they are to hire, and the more likely they are to lay off employees during a recession. Finally, we also find that exploration‐oriented firms are more likely to combine the accumulation of human capital through training, with both hiring and firing. This indicates that firms focusing on exploration more actively pursue the opportunities created by increased labor market imperfections during recessions. These results contribute to the literature by highlighting how recessions affect firms' flow of human capital investments, and subsequently stocks, depending on their strategic orientations.Managerial summaryWe examine how firms' strategic orientations influence how they respond to recessions in terms of their human capital. We find that the higher the strategic focus on exploration of new opportunities, the more firms invest in training, the more likely they are to hire, and the more likely they are to lay off employees during a recession. The opposite is the case for firms with a higher focus on exploiting existing (cost) advantages. Finally, we find that exploration‐oriented firms are more likely to combine the three human capital responses. In sum, our findings indicate that firms emphasizing innovation and exploration of new opportunities more actively pursue the opportunities created in labor markets during recessions.