International ambidexterity in firms' innovation of multinational enterprises from emerging economies: an investigation of TMT attributes

Purpose Extant research has integrated ambidexterity perspective into international business studies and calls for emerging market multinational enterprises (EM MNEs) to implement exploration and exploitation activities simultaneously in foreign markets. However, less attention has been paid to empirically test whether and how international ambidexterity can benefit the innovation performance of EM MNEs. Based on the data of international manufacturing firms in China, this paper explores the relationship between international ambidexterity and innovation performance and investigates four contingency factors of top management team (TMT): two external resource accumulation elements (i.e. TMT business ties and TMT political ties) and two internal resource integration elements (i.e. TMT contingency rewards and TMT social integration). Design/methodology/approach The author conducts multiple hierarchical linear regression analysis to test the hypothesis by collecting survey data from 227 MNEs from several Economic Development Zones located in Zhejiang province in China. Findings The results show that international ambidexterity is positively related to innovation performance, and the international ambidexterity-innovation performance relationship is amplified when TMTs build strong ties with external business partners and political departments, when EM MNEs link top managers' income to team collective performance and create a highly social integrated TMT. Originality/value The results contributes to answer the question that how well EM MNEs will succeed and enrich the context specificity of international ambidexterity. The findings also help us better understand the inconsistent empirical findings in organizational ambidexterity by uncovering the contingency role of several TMT attributes.