Title: Ambidextrous supply chain in an emerging market: impacts on innovation and performance

Authors: Susita Asree

Addresses: Faculty of Business, Winston Salem State University, 601 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Winston Salem, North Carolina, 27110, USA

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of an ambidextrous supply chain strategy on innovation and the firm's performance. This study also investigates the role of innovation as a mediating construct between ambidextrous supply chain and firm's performance. Drawing upon March's (1991) concept of exploration and exploitation, ambidextrous supply chain is conceptualised as the combination of an exploration and exploitation strategy. A web questionnaire survey was used in this work. Structural equation modelling was applied to test proposed hypotheses on the associations between variables. The findings show that an ambidextrous supply chain has a positive impact on innovation and firm's performance. Additionally, the impact of ambidextrous supply chain on firm's performance is higher when innovation is included as a mediator. This work seminally examines the effects of ambidextrous supply chain on firm's performance and the mediating role of innovation in the relationships between ambidextrous supply chain and firm's performance.

Keywords: ambidextrous supply chains; mediating effects; supply chain management; SCM; innovativeness; firm performance; innovation; exploration; exploitation; structural equation modelling; SEM.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSCOR.2016.075894

International Journal of Supply Chain and Operations Resilience, 2016 Vol.2 No.1, pp.1 - 11

Received: 03 Apr 2015
Accepted: 02 Jun 2015

Published online: 12 Apr 2016 *

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