The Influence of Ambidextrous Knowledge Search on Technological Innovation: The Mediating Role of Knowledge Base

Abstract

As an effective means of acquiring knowledge resources, knowledge search is an important driving force for enterprises to obtain competitive advantages. Based on ambidextrous theory, organizational search theory and knowledge base theory, this study constructs a theoretical framework for the effect of ambidextrous knowledge search on technological innovation performance. And empirically tests the mediating mechanism of knowledge base with the data of knowledge-intensive enterprises. The results show that both exploratory and exploitative search have positive effects on technological innovation performance, and significantly, the positive impact of exploratory searches was higher than that of exploitative searches. Moreover, the balance and combination of knowledge search have a significant positive impact on technological innovation performance respectively. However, the effect of combination is stronger when two search dimensions are considered at the same time. There is a mediating effect between ambidextrous knowledge search and technological innovation performance. Specifically speaking, knowledge base plays a complete mediating role for ambidextrous balance whereas a partial mediating role for ambidextrous combination. The conclusions reveal the mechanism of ambidextrous knowledge search, which can provide a certain theoretical guidance for enterprises to search external knowledge and improve innovation practice.