Research has shown that NPD project leaders should engage in boundary-spanning activities. The present study tested the impact of four boundary-spanning activities on NPD project performance and analyzed the antecedents of these activities. We hypothesized that NPD project leaders' abilities to perform these activities depend on the characteristics of their personal networks -structural holes, strength of ties, vertical and horizontal bridging ties. A Partial Least Squares test on 73 NPD projects showed that (a) "obtaining political support" and "scanning for ideas" are the boundary activities with the greatest impact on performance, (b) project leaders with strong ties in their network are more effective at these activities, (c) project leaders with structural holes in their networks are more effective in another boundary activity, "protecting the team", although this activity does not affect NPD outcomes. These results represent an important contribution to understanding how team leaders contribute to project performance.

Research into organisation theory contains abundant evidence of the positive effects of ambidexterity on a firm's performance, and of the influence of organisational context on ambidexterity. The present research tests whether organisational context affects innovation ambidexterity. Our results, based on a dataset of 108 large innovative firms, show that firms combining exploration innovation and exploitation innovation should adopt long-term practices that favour risk-taking and creativity, and thereby build an organisational context suited to innovation ambidexterity. Competences were found to have a strong moderating effect. These results have important managerial and theoretical implications. In the case of innovation, firms that simultaneously pursue exploitation and exploration activities should carefully consider how they combine competences and organisational context.

No abstract

Copies of this article can be made free of charge and without securing permission, for purposes of teaching, research, or library reserve. Consent to other kinds of copying, such as that for creating new works, or for resale, must be obtained from both the journal editor(s) and the author(s). M@n@gement is a double-blind refereed journal where articles are published in their original language as soon as they have been accepted. For a free subscription to M@n@gement, and more information: http://www.management-aims.com

Knowledge‐intensive business services (KIBS) help manufacturing firms boost their innovation activities, yet the question of which kinds of resources and intermediaries KIBS need for their own innovation activities remains largely unstudied. The current article investigates whether clustered KIBS might need an intermediary to access innovation resources, by studying the effects of network administrative organizations (NAOs) on KIBS’ resources for innovation. Using a survey of 53 KIBS in a French cluster, the authors find that NAOs directly affect both KIBS’ internal and external resources for innovation. They also study the intermediary effect of NAOs on KIBS’ absorptive capacity and provide recommendations for public policy to boost clustered KIBS’ innovation intensity.