Authors : Mohamad Faizal Ahmad Zaidi and Siti Norezam Othman
Abstract: Structural and contextual ambidexterity have dominated the discussion on organisational ambidexterity where the similarities and differences between them are being emphasised. One of the critical views is that although, both of them are essential, the impacts on performance may be dissimilar. Since, there are fewer empirical studies been done to demonstrate this view, this study aims to compare and contrast the effects of structural ambidexterity and contextual ambidexterity on the firms’ performance of New Product Development (NPD). This study is examined in the case of manufacturing sector in Malaysia. The data was collected via a questionnaire survey targeting product or production and processed with SPSS v.19 statistical technique. The results of correlation and linear regression analyses have shown that structural ambidexterity and contextual ambidexterity are indeed dissimilar in their effects on NPD performance but at the same time are complementing each other. It is concluded that both of them are important but must be applied according to the right contexts. This also implicates that organisational ambidexterity should have both direct and indirect link to firm performance. Since, this is a preliminary study more empirical works need to be done to generalise the findings.
Mohamad Faizal Ahmad Zaidi and Siti Norezam Othman, 2015. Structural Ambidexterity vs. Contextual Ambidexterity: Preliminary Evidence from Malaysia. The Social Sciences, 10: 1200-1207.