Ambidextrous organizational learning, environmental munificence and new product performance: Moderating effect of managerial ties in China

This research aims to explore how manufacturing firms in China have promoted new product performance through ambidextrous organizational learning. This study investigates the different effects of exploratory learning and exploitative learning on new product performance and the ways in which environmental munificence moderates these effects. Furthermore, this research also explores how managerial ties (i.e., business ties and political ties) shape the moderating effect of environmental munificence. Using survey data from a sample of 290 Chinese manufacturing firms, we find that exploratory learning positively facilitates new product performance while exploitative learning takes the form of an inverted U-shape. Our results further show that environmental munificence strengthens the effect of exploratory learning on new product performance while it weakens that of exploitative learning. Finally, we find that business ties and political ties produce distinct influences on the moderating effects of environmental munificence, presenting a complex re-moderating role on the linkages between ambidextrous organizational learning and new product performance. & 2012 Published by Elsevier B.V.