Mechanism of latecomer enterprises’ technological catch-up in technical standards alliances – An ambidextrous innovation perspective

This study innovatively conducts an empirical study on technological catch-up of latecomers in technological standards alliance from the perspective of ambidexterity innovation. Due to the paradox in the relationship between ambidexterity innovation and corporate performance, we constructed a research framework with inter-organizational factor - organizational model of technological standards alliance and intra-organizational factor - characteristics of latecomer firms as situational factors to deeply analyze the impact of ambidexterity innovation on technology catch-up of latecomers in technological standards alliance. The results of the empirical study show that the impact of ambidexterity innovation on the technological catch-up of latecomers differs among various alliance modes; the absorptive capacity of latecomers has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between duality ambidexterity and its technological catch-up. These findings provide useful suggestions for how latecomers can make use of technological standards alliance as a vehicle for technological catch-up.