How Does Openness to Innovation Drive Organizational Ambidexterity? The Mediating Role of Organizational Learning Goal Orientation

A firm cannot effectively relieve the tension in resource allocation for organizational ambidexterity by relying solely on internal resources. External sources of innovation are required. Based on knowledge-based view, this study aims to address the effect of open innovation (OI) on organizational ambidexterity, and explore the internal context that captures the benefits of both inbound and outbound OI. Empirical results from our study on 195 Chinese firms in high-tech industries show that both inbound and outbound knowledge flows are enablers of ambidexterity. Moreover, the benefits of OI for ambidexterity can be fully captured only when the firm has a collective learning goal orientation (LGO). These findings highlight the importance of interorganizational knowledge flows on organizational development and open the black box of how this relationship can be realized by proposing an intraorganizational LGO as the mediator. This study enriches the understanding of the antecedents of ambidexterity by exploring the interplay between internal and external processes.