Boon or curse? A contingent view on the relationship between strategic planning and organizational ambidexterity

Numerous scholars have attempted to explain which factors allow for organizational ambidexterity. Strategic planning, as a possible antecedent, has not been considered so far. This is surprising because strategic planning is among the most widely used strategic decision-making tools in management practice and one of the most extensively studied concepts in management research. In addition, prior research has demonstrated the potential of strategic planning to impact innovation-related outcomes—both positively and negatively. Here, we investigate the association between strategic planning and organizational ambidexterity using a survey of 217 senior executives. We highlight the importance of considering how executives use strategic planning. Our results support the hypothesis that strategic planning's positive or negative association with organizational ambidexterity is contingent on other organizational factors. Our findings reveal that strategic planning is only positively associated with organizational ambidexterity when leaders' innovation orientation is extraordinarily high. We further contextualize this interaction effect by considering the environmental uncertainty perceived by the top management. This work contributes to the literature by examining the antecedents of organizational ambidexterity

US consumers’ mental associations with meat substitute products

Negative impacts of meat consumption on both consumers’ health and the environment call for alternative sources for protein intake. In the last decades, the development of meat substitute products has made enormous progress. Given the beneficial aspects of reduced meat consumption, meat substitutes might be a promising approach for a more plant-based diet. However, despite the continuous improvement of meat substitute products and their increasing market potential, meat consumption in the US is still at a high level. Extant literature acknowledges that meat substitute products prompt several negative thoughts and feelings in various European countries, while US consumers’ perceptions of meat substitute products have not been investigated so far. However, understanding consumers’ thoughts and feelings toward meat substitute products provides valuable insights which can help policymakers and marketers to efficiently promote meat substitute products. Against this background, the current research investigates US consumers’ mental associations (i.e., connections of information and prior experiences with the product category stored in memory) with meat substitute products and explores if there are any differences between women and men. A sample of 175 US citizens acquired through an online panel provider completed a free word association technique resulting in 824 mental associations that qualified for the subsequent analysis. In a deductive-inductive content analysis, we assigned the mental associations to 20 categories (e.g., taste, health, environment) and determined their valence (i.e., positive, neutral, or negative). Frequencies and relationships among the categories were analyzed by employing frequency analyses, Chi-square difference tests, and multidimensional correspondence analysis. The findings reveal that meat substitute products elicit more negative mental associations than positive ones. Results validate categories identified in existing literature, but also reveal new categories of mental associations. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate that mental associations differ between women and men, with women tending to perceive meat substitutes more negatively than men. The multiple correspondence analysis resulted in four different consumer profiles (skeptics, innovators, health-oriented consumers, and avoiders) which can guide policymakers and brand managers on the effective promotion of meat substitute products

Different Ambidextrous Learning Architectures and the Role of HRM Systems

During the past decade ambidexterity has emerged as the central research stream in organization science to investigate how organizations manage to remain successful over time. By using the lens of organizational learning, ambidexterity can be defined as the simultaneous pursuit of exploration and exploitation. However, the link between ambidexterity and the human resource management of a firm is still a blind spot on the ambidexterity research map. To shed light on this issue, we show how different ambidextrous learning architectures can be created and maintained by the means of consistent HRM systems. By doing so, we show how HRM systems as specific bundles of HRM practices facilitate ambidextrous learning. Thereby we emphasize the challenge of creating and sustaining the horizontal and vertical fit of an HRM system with regard to different ambidextrous designs.Ambidexterity; Exploration; Exploitation; Organizational Learning; HRM; Strategic Human Resource Management

What Do Crowd Equity Investors Do? Exploring Post-Investment Activities in Equity Crowdfunding

Equity crowdfunding has become a viable alternative to the traditional forms of financing technology startups. This survey-based two-study article aims to shed light on the prevalence of crowd equity investors’ postinvestment activities and the antecedents to these engagement activities. Our first study finds that most crowd equity investors engage with the startups in which they invest in some way. While the majority engage in low-involvement activities (e.g., word of mouth), a smaller number of crowd equity investors also engage in high-involvement activities (e.g., strategic advice). Our second study reveals that engagement in these activities is driven by investment-, investor-, and proximity-related factors. In particular, the amount of investment—despite its smallness compared with that in the traditional forms of funding—is a reliable antecedent of crowd equity investors’ engagement in postinvestment activities. Furthermore, age and geographic proximity are positively associated with low-involvement activities, whereas intrinsic motivation and personal proximity are positively linked to high-involvement activities. By providing insights into the prevalence of postinvestment activities in equity crowdfunding and their antecedents, this article contributes to the debate on the potential of equity crowdfunding to complement or even replace the traditional forms of funding technological innovation

Anthropomorphism as a Differentiation Strategy for Standardized Reusable Glass Containers

The steadily increasing amount of waste requires new strategies for package waste reduction. One strategy is to switch from single-use plastic packaging to glass packaging; however, this strategy is only beneficial from an environmental perspective when complemented with a multi-use deposit refund system with standardized glass containers. This implies the loss of package shape as a differentiation criterion, which has been considered a highly relevant marketing instrument in the fast-moving consumer goods markets. Against this background, the current research investigates in an online experiment the suitability of anthropomorphized label designs on prompting purchase intentions in the context of reusable glass jars. The study further investigates the mediating roles of brand attitude and brand interest. Contrary to the postulated hypotheses, anthropomorphized labels negatively impact brand attitude, and the sequential mediation of anthropomorphism on brand interest and brand attitude on purchase intention was significant. Our findings reveal that anthropomorphized labels stimulate brand interest, which in turn positively affects purchase intention. The results emphasize the relevance of brand interest in package design and guides manufacturers, brand managers, and policymakers to effective differentiation strategies for standardized multi-use packages

The Joint Influence of Strategic Planning and Ambidextrous Culture on Organizational Ambidexterity

Prior studies on the influence of strategic planning on innovation activities have led to ambiguity as to whether it helps or hinders innovative activities. We extend this discussion by investigating the role of strategic planning in achieving organizational ambidexterity. We reason that the effect of strategic planning depends on whether employees perceive it as constraining or enabling. If strategic planning is perceived in an enabling way, it can unfold a positive effect on organizational ambidexterity. Furthermore, we argue that the perception of strategic planning as enabling is among others contingent upon the presence of an ambidextrous culture. Apart from a positive main effect of ambidextrous culture our results clearly support the hypothesis that strategic planning and ambidextrous culture have a synergistic positive effect on ambidexterity. Our findings also show that these results are robust for different ways of operationalizing organizational ambidexterity. The results thus indicate that leadership should foster an ambidextrous culture by communicating an overarching vision and promoting organizational diversity when applying strategic management practices, to allow the simultaneous pursuit of exploration and exploitation. Drawing on hand-collected performance data we investigate the performance consequences of organizational ambidexterity in a second step

Boon or Curse? A Contingent Perspective on the Effects of Strategic Planning on Organizational Ambidexterity

Numerous scholars have attempted to explain which factors allow for organizational ambidexterity. Strategic planning, as a possible antecedent, has not been considered so far. This is surprising because strategic planning is among the most widely used strategic decision-making tools in management practice and one of the most extensively studied concepts in management research. In addition, prior research has demonstrated the potential of strategic planning to impact innovation-related outcomes—both positively and negatively. Here, we investigate the association between strategic planning and organizational ambidexterity using a survey of 217 senior executives. We highlight the importance of considering how executives use strategic planning. Our results support the hypothesis that strategic planning’s positive or negative association with organizational ambidexterity is contingent on other organizational factors. Our findings reveal that strategic planning is only positively associated with organizational ambidexterity when leaders’ innovation orientation is extraordinarily high. We further contextualize this interaction effect by considering the environmental uncertainty perceived by the top management. This work contributes to the literature by examining the antecedents of organizational ambidexterity