Achieving Product Ambidexterity in New Product Development: The Role of Middle Managers' Dynamic Managerial Capabilities

Abstract

While the concept of dynamic managerial capabilities was initially developed to understand top managers' strategic decisions, we theorize that it can explain how middle managers successfully contribute to functional outcomes. In this paper, we apply the dynamic managerial capabilities perspective and theorize that middle managers' capabilities to sense, seize, and reconfigure opportunities and assets, enhance product ambidexterity. We test our predictions with survey data obtained in two waves with a three‐year time lag and enriched with archival data from a sample of 185 German middle managers. Our results show that middle managers' general human capital (specialized education), structural social capital (managerial ties), and relational social capital (trust) are positively related to product ambidexterity, while their cognitive social capital (solidarity) is negatively related. We contribute by expanding the concept of dynamic managerial capabilities to middle management and provide insights into the underexplored relationship between middle managers' capabilities and functional product ambidexterity.

Looking back to look forward: a systematic review of and research agenda for dynamic managerial capabilities

“…Previous studies have established a robust relationship between DMCs and financial performance (e.g., Adner and Helfat 2003;Sirmon and Hitt 2009;Arrfelt et al 2015). Additionally, recent research has proposed these managerial capabilities as conduits to other organizational outcomes, such as non-financial performance (e.g., Mostafiz et al 2019aMostafiz et al , b, 2021, product ambidexterity (e.g., Greven et al 2022), innovation performance/ambidexterity (e.g., Khan et al 2020;Nguyen 2021;Heubeck and Meckl 2022a), or sustainability performance (e.g., Nijhof et al 2019).…”

“…This growing interest affirms that DMCs provide a valuable theoretical lens for studying the microfoundations of strategic decision-making in today's globalized digital economy. As discussed in the following sections, research has continuously developed the theoretical foundations of DMC theory by introducing new dimensions (e.g., Huy and Zott 2019;Tasheva and Nielsen 2022), expanding the level of analysis beyond top managers (e.g., Greven et al 2022;Heubeck and Meckl 2022b), and applying the theory to new contexts (e.g., Akter et al 2021;Krause and Pullman 2021). Figure 3 displays the growing interest in DMCs.…”

“…The reviewed articles have widened the conceptual boundaries of DMC theory, as evidenced by 31.5% of articles that include lower management levels. For instance, Karadağ and Şahin (2021) and Greven et al (2022) focus on the role of middle managers, and Harvey (2022) and Heubeck and Meckl (2022b, a) study DMCs at multiple levels. This expansion of DMC theory is warranted due to the increasing degradation of organizational hierarchies and the mounting importance of middle management for strategy implementation (Rouleau 2005;Rajan and Wulf 2006).…”

Political ties in emerging markets: a systematic review and research agenda

“…Innovation performance outcomes: these relate to improving the innovation capabilities of firms in emerging economies. Our review shows that studies have focused on different types of innovation, such as environmental innovation (Liao et al, 2021;Wu et al, 2022), business model innovation (Anwar and Ali Shah, 2020), R&D and patent (D ıaz-D ıaz et al, 2022;Ji and Yi, 2022;Kwak et al, 2023;Lu et al, 2022;Wang et al, 2020a, b, c), exploration and exploitation innovation (Chen et al, 2021), reverse innovation (Su et al, 2021) and product and process innovation (Gao et al, 2017;Greven et al, 2022;Wang et al, 2022a, b, c;Wu, 2011;Xie et al, 2014;Zhang et al, 2019). Political ties have thus been found to be positively associated with firm innovation in terms of incremental and radical innovation (Liao et al, 2021), patent information (Zhou et al, 2019), and both exploration and exploitation innovation (Chen et al, 2021).…”

Remembering Steven W. Floyd's Impact on Middle Management Research

“…Andrea Greven notes about their study of middle managers' human, social, and cognitive capabilities on product ambidexterity (Greven et al, 2023), that Steve's work drew them to the topic area itself, highlighting that ‘[Steve's] seminal research has sparked our passion for the middle managers' role in organizations which lead to our contribution in this special issue. We thank him for his outstanding achievements and contributions that will gravely shape the future of this field’.…”