The role of managerial activities in achieving Information technology ambidexterity and new product development performance in small and medium-sized enterprises

ABSTRACT

Given their limited portfolio of resources, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have to manage information technology (IT) exploitation and exploration at the same time to support a major shift in their product focus while maintaining their current array of products. We theorise that SMEs rely on managerial activities to enable IT ambidexterity to enhance the performance of their new product development (NPD). To this end, we hypothesise and test the relationships between managerial activities, IT ambidexterity, and NPD performance. Using multiple respondent data from 292 high-tech SMEs, we find that managerial activities enable IT ambidexterity, and this relationship is moderated by structural configurations. Considering the NPD management challenges ushered in by the digital era, our findings identify IT ambidexterity as a key mechanism to enhance NPD performance in SMEs. Our results contribute novel insights into the effective role of managerial activities in SMEs and help to explain the role of IT ambidexterity in the NPD literature, thereby facilitating continued theory development in this field of research.

KEYWORDS:

• Managerial activities
• IT ambidexterity
• formal structural configuration
• connectedness
• new product development performance

Acknowledgements

Tahir Abbas Syed would like to acknowledge that part of this research was conducted while he was affiliated as a doctoral researcher at the University of Sussex. Jose Benitez wants to thank for the research sponsorship received by the Government of Andalusia and the European Regional Development Fund (European Union) (Research Project B-SEJ74-UGR20), and the Government of Spain (Research Project PID2021.124725NB.I00).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Based on the standards generally adopted in the UK and the European Union, this study considers SMEs to be firms with fewer than 250 full-time employees.

2. Turner et al. (2016) identified five managerial actions (buffering, gap filling, integration, role expansion, and tone setting). Given the complex, multifaceted nature of these actions, our study focuses on the tone-setting (directive) and integration (participative) actions and draws on these features to distinguish between a directive and a participative managerial activity. Against this backdrop, we decided to use labels of activities to avoid any confusion with the more comprehensive managerial actions conceptualised in Turner et al. (2016).

3. In the context of our study, core NPD project was referred to highlight the primary or most significant NPD project undertaken by the firm, which would have the most impact or significance for the firm’s strategic goals and objectives. It is not based on spending level per se, but rather on the importance and strategic relevance of the project to the company.

4. We used the average level of education of the three respondents per firm. We also checked this analysis by using the average level of education of the first, second, and third respondent, and the results were similar. The level of education was measured by asking the respondents the level of education using the following scale: 1: no formal education, 2: high-school diploma, 3: vocational training, 4: Bachelor/Master degree, 5: professional degree, 6: doctoral education.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tahir Abbas Syed

Tahir Abbas Syed is a Senior Lecturer in Management Sciences at the University of Manchester, Manchester, UK. He holds an M.S. in Engineering Management from Politecnico di Torino, Italy, and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the National University of Sciences and Technology, Pakistan. His research interests focus on the business value of IT and IT-enabled organizational capabilities. His research has been published in the European Journal of Information Systems, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Decision Sciences, and Information & Management.

Constantin Blome

Constantin Blome is the Academic Dean of Lancaster University Leipzig since September 2022. He is also Co-Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Operations & Production Management. Constantin’s research interests include supply chain management, procurement, and operations management with a strong focus on sustainability, innovation, and risk issues. In 2020 and 2021, he received the highly cited research award from Clarivate in the category “cross-field”, highlighting the top 0,1% cited scholars. Constantin is a regular keynote speaker at academic and practitioner conferences. His research won several prestigious awards. His research has been published in the Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Business Logistics, Journal of Supply Chain Management, International Journal of Production Research, International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, and Journal of Business Ethics.

Jose Benitez

Jose Benitez is a Professor of Information Systems (IS), Department Chair of Information Systems and Business Analytics, and the Bridgestone Endowed Chair in International Business at the Ambassador Crawford College of Business and Entrepreneurship, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, USA. His research interests cover the impact of digitalization on companies and individuals and the development of theory and quantitative research methods in IS research. His research has been published in about 50 papers in leading journals including MIS Quarterly, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Management Information Systems, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, European Journal of Information Systems, Journal of Information Technology, Information & Management, Decision Support Systems, Decision Sciences, and Journal of Business Research. Jose was recognized as an Association for Information Systems (AIS) Distinguished Member Cum Laude in July 2021 and received the AIS Sandra Slaughter Service Award in December 2022. He currently serves as a Senior Editor of the European Journal of Information Systems, Information & Management, and Decision Support Systems and as an Associate Editor of the Journal of the Association for Information Systems. He also serves as an Editorial Review Board member for Information Systems Research. In addition, Jose has served as a Guest Editor of Decision Sciences. His teaching interests and instructional expertise cover managing digital business transformation, digital innovation, the business value of digital technologies, IT management, IT strategy, theory development, and quantitative research methods in IS research at graduate and undergraduate levels. Jose is a passionate speaker who enjoys working with students, colleagues, and executives to positively impact the business world and society. He has also provided consulting services and worked on IT development and digital transformation projects with many leading companies worldwide. Jose can be contacted at [email protected].

Thanos Papadopoulos

Thanos Papadopoulos is a Professor of Management (Information Systems/Operations Management) and Head of Department at the Department of Analytics, Operations, and Systems of Kent Business School, University of Kent, UK. His research focuses on the problems that are at the nexus of operations management and information systems and more recently on big data within supply chains and operations. He has published over 150 articles in peer-reviewed journals and conferences including, inter alia, the British Journal of Management, Decision Sciences, European Journal of Operational Research, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, European Journal of Information Systems, International Journal of Production Research, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, International Journal of Production Economics, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, and Production Planning and Control. He is an Associate Editor for the British Journal of Management and the International Journal of Operations & Production Management, as well as a Departmental Editor for IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management. He sits on the Editorial Board of Production Planning and Control and is a Distinguished Editorial Board member of the International Journal of Information Management and International Journal of Information Management Data Insights. Thanos is a Fellow of the British Academy of Management. He has recently been included in the Clarivate list of Highly Cited Researchers 2023 for a third time in a row, as well as in Stanford University’s Top 2% of Scientists in the World for the single year 2023, marking three consecutive years of inclusion (2023, 2022, 2021).