The impact of managerial autonomy and founding-team marketing capabilities on the relationship between ambidexterity and innovation performance

Despite extensive research on the impact of ambidexterity strategy on firm performance, little is known about how team and individual factors affect innovation performance in new-venture businesses. In response to the call for research on the topic, this study examines the relationship between ambidexterity-which includes exploitative and exploratory strategies-and innovation performance. The study finds that the relationship is mediated by founding-team marketing capabilities and moderated by managerial autonomy. This model is empirically tested using 165 new ventures in the UAE. The findings suggest that an exploratory strategy improves the founding team's marketing capabilities, whereas an exploitative strategy worsens these capabilities. Exploitative strategy and the founding team's marketing abilities are negatively affected by managerial autonomy. However, managerial autonomy has no significant impact on either exploratory strategy or the founding team's marketing capabilities. The findings also show that the founding team's marketing skills mediate the relationship between exploratory strategy-but not exploitative strategy-and innovation performance.