IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wsi/ijimxx/v24y2019i01ns1363919620500061.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Alternative Routes To Innovation — The Effects Of Cultural And Structural Fit

Author

Listed:
  • DAG INGVAR JACOBSEN

    (Agder University, Servicebox 422, 4604 Kristiansand, Norway)

  • TORE HILLESTAD

    (NHH Norwegian School of Economics, Norway)

  • BIRGITTE YTTRI

    (Telenor Norway, Norway)

  • JARLE HILDRUM

    (Telenor Norway, Norway)

Abstract

A configurational approach to organizations assumes that structural and cultural characteristics must be in “fit” to produce the wanted outcome. With a focus on innovation, this study examines empirically to what extent innovative activities with a large, global telecom company are produced by an innovative culture, an innovative structure, as well as the fit between the two. Based on an extensive survey (N = 21064, response rate = 65) of employees in seven countries in Europe and Asia, data was aggregated to unit level as culture by nature is a collective phenomenon. The empirical analysis detected both the individual effects of culture strength and homogeneity, structure, as well as the fit between the two. The results indicate that an innovative culture and an organic structure indeed fosters innovation, but that, somewhat surprisingly, there are not effects of the fit between the two. Both practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Dag Ingvar Jacobsen & Tore Hillestad & Birgitte Yttri & Jarle Hildrum, 2019. "Alternative Routes To Innovation — The Effects Of Cultural And Structural Fit," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 24(01), pages 1-20, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:wsi:ijimxx:v:24:y:2019:i:01:n:s1363919620500061
    DOI: 10.1142/S1363919620500061
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S1363919620500061
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1142/S1363919620500061?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Strese, Steffen & Adams, Daniel R. & Flatten, Tessa C. & Brettel, Malte, 2016. "Corporate culture and absorptive capacity: The moderating role of national culture dimensions on innovation management," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 1149-1168.
    2. Michael Tushman & Wendy K. Smith & Robert Chapman Wood & George Westerman & Charles O'Reilly, 2010. "Organizational designs and innovation streams," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 19(5), pages 1331-1366, October.
    3. Adam J. Bock & Tore Opsahl & Gerard George & David M. Gann, 2012. "The Effects of Culture and Structure on Strategic Flexibility during Business Model Innovation," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(2), pages 279-305, March.
    4. Gregory, Brian T. & Harris, Stanley G. & Armenakis, Achilles A. & Shook, Christopher L., 2009. "Organizational culture and effectiveness: A study of values, attitudes, and organizational outcomes," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(7), pages 673-679, July.
    5. George E. Halkos & Nickolaos G. Tzeremes, 2013. "Modelling the effect of national culture on countries' innovation performances: A conditional full frontier approach," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(5), pages 656-678, September.
    6. John M. Jermier & John W. Slocum & Louis W. Fry & Jeannie Gaines, 1991. "Organizational Subcultures in a Soft Bureaucracy: Resistance Behind the Myth and Facade of an Official Culture," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(2), pages 170-194, May.
    7. Hogan, Suellen J. & Coote, Leonard V., 2014. "Organizational culture, innovation, and performance: A test of Schein's model," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(8), pages 1609-1621.
    8. Ricarda Bouncken & Alexander Brem & Sascha Kraus, 2016. "Multi-Cultural Teams As Sources For Creativity And Innovation: The Role Of Cultural Diversity On Team Performance," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 20(01), pages 1-34, January.
    9. Raminta Pučėtaitė & Aurelija Novelskaitė & Anna-Maija Lämsä & Elina Riivari, 2016. "The Relationship Between Ethical Organisational Culture and Organisational Innovativeness: Comparison of Findings from Finland and Lithuania," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 139(4), pages 685-700, December.
    10. Shane, Scott A., 1992. "Why do some societies invent more than others?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 29-46, January.
    11. Robert E. Quinn & John Rohrbaugh, 1983. "A Spatial Model of Effectiveness Criteria: Towards a Competing Values Approach to Organizational Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(3), pages 363-377, March.
    12. Alexandre Luis Prim & Luiz Stephany Filho & Guilherme Augusto Cavallaro Zamur & Luiz Carlos Di Serio, 2017. "The Relationship Between National Culture Dimensions And Degree Of Innovation," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(01), pages 1-22, January.
    13. Varsakelis, Nikos C., 2001. "The impact of patent protection, economy openness and national culture on R&D investment: a cross-country empirical investigation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(7), pages 1059-1068, August.
    14. Helmy H. Baligh, 1994. "Components of Culture: Nature, Interconnections, and Relevance to the Decisions on the Organization Structure," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(1), pages 14-27, January.
    15. Sebastian Raisch & Julian Birkinshaw & Gilbert Probst & Michael L. Tushman, 2009. "Organizational Ambidexterity: Balancing Exploitation and Exploration for Sustained Performance," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(4), pages 685-695, August.
    16. Scott Shane, 1995. "Uncertainty Avoidance and the Preference for Innovation Championing Roles," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 26(1), pages 47-68, March.
    17. O'Reilly, Charles & Harreld, J. Bruce & Tushman, Michael L., 2009. "Organizational Ambidexterity: IBM and Emerging Business Opportunities," Research Papers 2025, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Martínez-Caro, Eva & Cegarra-Navarro, Juan Gabriel & Alfonso-Ruiz, Francisco Javier, 2020. "Digital technologies and firm performance: The role of digital organisational culture," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    2. Leslie A. Laam & George Godlewski & Wayne Psek, 2023. "A description and mathematization of an adaptation-based culture mechanism," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 363-390, June.
    3. O'Reilly, Charles A., III & Tushman, Michael L., 2013. "Organizational Ambidexterity: Past, Present and Future," Research Papers 2130, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    4. Malik, Tariq H. & Xiang, Tao & Huo, Chunhui, 2021. "The transformation of national patents for high-technology exports: Moderating effects of national cultures," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(1).
    5. Porcu, Lucia & del Barrio-García, Salvador & Kitchen, Philip J. & Tourky, Marwa, 2020. "The antecedent role of a collaborative vs. a controlling corporate culture on firm-wide integrated marketing communication and brand performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 435-443.
    6. Miguel Gonzalez-Loureiro & Maria José Sousa & Hugo Pinto, 2017. "Culture and innovation in SMEs: the intellectual structure of research for further inquiry," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(11), pages 1908-1931, November.
    7. José Andrade & Mário Franco & Luis Mendes, 2023. "Facilitating and Inhibiting Effects of Organisational Ambidexterity in SME: an Analysis Centred on SME Characteristics," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 14(1), pages 35-64, March.
    8. Jan Ossenbrink & Joern Hoppmann & Volker H. Hoffmann, 2019. "Hybrid Ambidexterity: How the Environment Shapes Incumbents’ Use of Structural and Contextual Approaches," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(6), pages 1319-1348, November.
    9. Wissal Affes & Habib Affes, 2022. "Business Model and Firm Performance in Tunisian Firms: a Mediated Moderation Analysis," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(4), pages 2822-2839, December.
    10. Yutao Sun & Seamus Grimes, 2016. "The emerging dynamic structure of national innovation studies: a bibliometric analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 106(1), pages 17-40, January.
    11. Azeem, Muhammad & Ahmed, Munir & Haider, Sajid & Sajjad, Muhammad, 2021. "Expanding competitive advantage through organizational culture, knowledge sharing and organizational innovation," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    12. Turró, Andreu & Urbano, David & Peris-Ortiz, Marta, 2014. "Culture and innovation: The moderating effect of cultural values on corporate entrepreneurship," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 360-369.
    13. David B. Audretsch & Maribel Guerrero, 2023. "Is ambidexterity the missing link between entrepreneurship, management, and innovation?," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 48(6), pages 1891-1918, December.
    14. Koryak, Oksana & Lockett, Andy & Hayton, James & Nicolaou, Nicos & Mole, Kevin, 2018. "Disentangling the antecedents of ambidexterity: Exploration and exploitation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 413-427.
    15. Ancarani, Alessandro & Di Mauro, Carmela & Giammanco, Maria Daniela, 2009. "How are organisational climate models and patient satisfaction related? A competing value framework approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(12), pages 1813-1818, December.
    16. Athreye, Suma & Batsakis, Georgios & Singh, Satwinder, 2016. "Local, global, and internal knowledge sourcing: The trilemma of foreign-based R&D subsidiaries," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(12), pages 5694-5702.
    17. Úbeda-García, Mercedes & Claver-Cortés, Enrique & Marco-Lajara, Bartolomé & Zaragoza-Sáez, Patrocinio, 2020. "Toward a dynamic construction of organizational ambidexterity: Exploring the synergies between structural differentiation, organizational context, and interorganizational relations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 363-372.
    18. David Urbano & Sebastian Aparicio & Victor Querol, 2016. "Social progress orientation and innovative entrepreneurship: an international analysis," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 26(5), pages 1033-1066, December.
    19. Fan, Di & Li, Yi & Chen, Liang, 2017. "Configuring innovative societies: The crossvergent role of cultural and institutional varieties," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 66, pages 43-56.
    20. Jan Ossenbrink & Joern Hoppmann, 2019. "Polytope Conditioning and Linear Convergence of the Frank–Wolfe Algorithm," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 44(1), pages 1319-1348, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wsi:ijimxx:v:24:y:2019:i:01:n:s1363919620500061. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tai Tone Lim (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.worldscinet.com/ijim/ijim.shtml .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.