Ambidexterity, a driver to enhance small and medium enterprises' innovation autonomy Online publication date: Tue, 18-May-2021
by Cristina Iturrioz-Landart; Henar Alcalde-Heras; Cristina Aragón-Amonarriz
International Journal of Business Environment (IJBE), Vol. 12, No. 2, 2021
Abstract: SMEs suffer from structural limitations that constrain their ability to develop innovation capacities and these constraints may affect ambidextrous strategy implementations, particularly during economic recessions. To mitigate these weaknesses, SMEs often rely on inter-firm cooperation relationships to provide resources and external sources of knowledge relevant in both exploration and exploitation. The network and organisational performance effects of ambidexterity strategy have been widely studied, but scarce research has focused on the contribution that ambidexterity linked to inter-firm cooperation strategies have on SMEs innovation capabilities over time. This longitudinal study, based on a panel dataset about innovation behaviour on 2,150 SMEs located in Spain's Basque Country during recession periods (2009-2013), verifies how ambidexterity, together with external collaboration strategy, reinforces SMEs innovation autonomy.
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Business Environment (IJBE):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:
Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.
If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com
Our Blog 
Follow us on Twitter 
Visit us on Facebook