CEO golden‐mean thinking, ambidextrous orientation and organizational performance in Chinese context

Purpose – Previous research on the relationship between cheif executive officer (CEO) and organizational performance focused primarily on behavior and demographic variables, but was seldom based on the CEO cognition perspective. To fill this gap, the purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between CEO cognition and organizational performance. Design/methodology/approach – Taking CEO golden‐mean thinking as an independent variable, organizational performance as dependent variable, ambidextrous orientation as a mediating variable, interdependence and connectedness as moderating variables, and using a multi‐source data collection approach, data were collected from 193 Chinese firms to test the hypothesis by adopting hierarchical regression model. Findings – CEO golden‐mean thinking is found to have significantly positive impacts on ambidextrous orientation and organizational performance. Ambidextrous orientation plays a partial mediating role between golden‐mean thinking and organizational performance, while independence and connectedness play joint moderating roles between ambidextrous orientation and organizational performance. The three‐way interaction among ambidextrous orientation, connectedness, and interdependence has a significantly positive effect on organizational performance. Research limitations/implications – CEOs should not only improve organizational performance through diversified, harmonious, and integrative thinking, but also enhance the ambidextrous ability by building ambidextrous orientation, connectedness, and interdependence mechanism in order to promote organizational performance. Originality/value – As one of the most salient thinking characteristics in Chinese traditional culture, golden‐mean thinking increasingly has attracted scholars' attention. However, no previous scholar has applied this construct into leadership theory.