INDUSTRY CLUSTER RESOURCES IMPACTING DUAL INNOVATIONS in PAKISTAN's IT SECTOR: MEDIATING EFFECT OF KNOWLEDGE & LEARNING PROCESSES

Abstract

This research investigates as to how industry cluster resources orchestrate knowledge and learning
processes which consequently through their mediating influence attain exploratory and exploitative
innovations or organizational ambidexterity. Using survey research design, 655 questionnaires were
analyzed from 348 firms in Pakistani IT sector using convenience sampling. Findings revealed that
when based on strong theoretical recommendations, SECI perspective (socialization and
externalization); knowledge management perspective (Knowledge transfer and application) and
learning organization perspectives (intuition from 4I framework) are combined as knowledge and
learning processes; the construct validities and reliabilities of the same as higher order construct
were confirmed and found satisfactory through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. For
hypotheses testing, Process Macro bootstrapping method was employed. Simple mediator model
confirmed partial mediating influence of knowledge and learning processes on the pathway between
industry cluster resources and organizational ambidexterity. Furthermore, findings of parallel
multiple mediator model confirmed the individual mediating effects of knowledge management
processes, knowledge creation/SECI processes, and intuition between antecedent and outcome
variables. Overall, findings suggested that industry cluster resources increase the attainment of
organizational ambidexterity, via combined effect of knowledge and learning processes by .2685
points. Future research may be carried out on various other combinations of variables from three
perspectives in other industries, cultures and scenarios. Managers, leaders and policy makers should
facilitate processes based on knowledge and learning perspectives for their employees instead of
incorporating processes from either of the three perspectives.