Achieving continuous improvement and innovation through a supportive organizational context

This paper applies the concept of contextual ambidexterity in manufacturing contexts. We maintain that the more a plant adopts an organizational context that combines stretch and discipline (performance management context) and support and trust (social context) the higher its level of contextual ambidexterity will be. We test our hypotheses on the High Performance Manufacturing database using SEM. Findings show that both social context and performance management context have a positive effect on contextual ambidexterity measured as interaction between improvement and innovation. When contextual ambidexterity is measured as absolute difference between innovation and improvement, only performance management context contributes to contextual ambidexterity.