Objective and main results

This paper reports on a case study investigating how an innovative small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) achieved agility to respond to disruptive digital innovation.

Main findings:

• The dual process of mitigating organizational rigidity and developing innovative capabilities was significant for achieving agility.
• To mitigate organizational rigidity, achieving boundary openness and balancing the tension of organizational ambidexterity are central mechanisms.
• Innovative capability is enabled organizational adaptability and balancing the tension of organizational ambidexterity.

Summary of practical implications

Mangers of SMEs should adopt an open and flexible mindset towards innovation, business strategies, and organizing of products and structures.

SMEs should work with partners to identify areas of collaboration and integrate the partners’ complementary capabilities with their own existing capabilities.

SMEs should appropriate and leverage external resources to deal with internal gaps and constraints. They should also emphasize organizational flexibility to achieve both exploitative innovation and explorative innovation.

Tags