Sébastien Brion

THE IMPACT OF ORGANISATIONAL CONTEXT AND COMPETENCES ON INNOVATION AMBIDEXTERITY

Research into organisation theory contains abundant evidence of the positive effects of ambidexterity on a firms performance, and of the influence of organisational context on ambidexterity. The present research tests whether organisational context affects innovation ambidexterity. Our results, based on a dataset of 108 large innovative firms, show that firms combining exploration innovation and exploitation innovation should adopt long-term practices that favour risk-taking and creativity, and thereby build an organisational context suited to innovation ambidexterity. Competences were found to have a strong moderating effect. These results have important managerial and theoretical implications. In the case of innovation, firms that simultaneously pursue exploitation and exploration activities should carefully consider how they combine competences and organisational context.

The Impact of Team Virtuality and Task Complexity on NPD Coordination Modes

New Product Development (NPD) processes increasingly involve virtual teams. Virtuality can decrease task interdependence, making the question of the coordination of these processes crucial. The modes of coordination (standardization, planning and mutual adjustment) depend on task interdependence - which are influenced by task complexity and by the level of team virtuality. However, to date, this link has received little theoretical and empirical attention. This paper aims to shed some light on this aspect. Our goal is to better understand the impact of team virtuality levels and of task complexity on the type of coordination implemented within the team. Based on the study of three NPD projects, our research indicates that, contrary to previous results, virtuality creates a need for mutual adjustment and is not incompatible with task complexity.

IT Use and Dispersed New Product Development Project Performance: The Mediating Role of Coordination

The spatial and temporal dispersion of innovative projects provides access to a broad base of knowledge all over the world. However, difficulties in communicating remotely in dispersed teams may jeopardize the success of these projects. Although the use of IT in such projects has been the subject of several studies, the question of whether its use leads to improved performance remains unexplored. This study investigates the mediating role of coordination in the relationship between IT and the performance of dispersed new product development projects. The results highlight the mediating role of coordination for the use of IT that support product design and organization of tasks. Moreover, this research shows that the impact of IT on coordination differs according to the project dispersion level.