Fostering Team Innovation in Tech Start-Ups: The Role of Team Ambidexterity as Mediator Between Servant Leadership Behaviour and Team Innovation

Abstract

Early technology start-up faces a lot of problems such as leader mentality, ecosystem, lack of general knowledge, and innovation. One of the root causes is the absence of leadership role. This study is constructed to fill a research gap on the influence of servant leadership behaviour to team innovation in technology start-up. The authors propose team ambidexterity as mediator to enhance the role of servant leadership behaviour in fostering team innovation. We also investigate the team climate as a moderator to support the team ambidexterity. The samples are 207 start-up members in Indonesia which aggregated into 59 clustered samples. The result shows that the team ambidexterity has a significant mediation effect between servant leadership behaviour and team innovation. Second result is team climate, which is a good moderator on team ambidexterity. These outcomes lead to research opportunities and practical implications to enhance the team innovation among start-ups.

Driving Innovation in Healthcare: Exploring the Impact of Ambidextrous Leadership on Creative Performance among Frontline Health Professionals in Norway

“…However, studies within other domains of research have identi ed a positive association between the two. Speci cally, in a variety of contexts and studies undertaken in different countries well support a positive relationship between AL and employees' innovative performance and aspects of CP (36, 50,52,53). Based on the discussion of theory, literature and previous empirical studies there is good reasons to expect to nd a similar pattern, that is, the practices of AL to be positively associated with CP of health professionals.…”

A systematic literature review on the relationship between servant leadership and its team and organizational level outcomes

“…For example, Xu and Wang (2019) indicates how political climate, as a moderator, affects relationships between servant leadership and team-member exchange (mediator), and the relationship between team-member exchange and collective thriving (outcome). Antonio et al (2021) showed that team climate moderates the relationship between servant leadership and team innovation. Team climate enhances the moderating effect of servant leadership on ambidexterity in technology start-ups.…”

In search of mediators of leadership behavior to Team Creativity in Team Start-ups

“…Servant leaders are genuinely focused on the development of their followers (Hu and Liden, 2011;Van Dierendonck, 2011), and it displays an altruistic commitment to helping followers to grow. Following the work of Yoshida et al (2014), where Servant leadership directly influences affect-based trust rather than cognitive-based within the team, and the study of Antonio et al (2021) on the impact of Servant Leadership on Team Ambidexterity, we hypothesize that:…”

“…The expected outcome may vary depending on the context and the level difference of the organization (Schneider et al, 2013). Some examples of the outcome are creative performance (Si and Wei, 2012), firm performance (Baer and Frese, 2003), safety (Zohar and Tenne-Gazit, 2008), and innovation (Antonio et al, 2021). Kinnunen et al (2016) report a study on the relationship between Leadership and Team Climate.…”

“…The theoretical framework of a Team Start-up is surveyed by Antonio et al ( 2021 ) as follows: (i) “Theory of Entrepreneurship” of Cantillon ( 1775 ) and the “Creative Destruction” theory of Schumpeter ( 1942 ), which stated that a start-up is a combination of creativity, novelty, innovation, and development, (ii) the concept of Life Cycle Theory (Kaulio, 2003 ) which consider start-up as a linear and dynamic entity that address several challenges through several phases, and (iii) Complexity Theory (Tsai and Lan, 2006 ) which reveal that a start-up follows a stiff transition during the journey. This transition is called a threshold; in this case, using the threshold is the ultimate way to let a new order arise.…”