Publication Type

PhD Dissertation

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

4-2026

Abstract

As a vital organizational form of R&D teams in specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative (SRDI) small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), distributed teams have gradually emerged as a dynamic source of innovation for such enterprises. Against the backdrop of the (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) era, markets have imposed higher demands on enterprises' innovative and sustainable development capabilities, exerting substantial impacts on the growth of SRDI SMEs. Although the distributed R&D team model, developed through continuous exploration in=132=132enterprises' innovation practices, has drawn practical and scholarlyattention for its role in shaping ambidextrous innovation in SRDI SMEs, the internal mechanism underlying the relationship between cognitive diversityderived from distributed teams and ambidextrous innovation remains underexplored. Accordingly, drawing on the dynamic capabilities theory (DCT) and the resource-based view (RBV), this study introduced market agility as a mediating variable and examined the moderating role of resource integrationin this linkage. A conceptual model linking cognitive diversity toambidextrous innovation was constructed to thoroughly investigate the underlying mechanism of distributed teams on ambidextrous innovation, thereby providing theoretical guidance for the survival and development of SRDI SMEs.

This study took SRDI SMEs as the research samples, obtained 677 validquestionnaires through questionnaire surveys, and employed statistical analysis methods to examine the valid data. The main conclusions are drawnas follows: Cognitive diversity exerts significant positive impacts on exploitative innovation, exploratory innovation, and market agility amongSRDI SMEs. Market agility partially mediates the relationships betweencognitive diversity and both types of innovation. Resource integrationpositively moderates the relationship between cognitive diversity and market agility, strengthening the positive impact of the former on the latter. Furthermore, through heterogeneity analyses based on enterprise age andregion, this study further finds that the positive impacts of cognitive diversityon exploitative and exploratory innovation in SRDI SMEs do not differ significantly across enterprise age groups. Cognitive diversity exhibits nosignificant regional differences in its impact on exploitative innovation amongthese enterprises, yet its positive impact on exploratory innovation is significantly stronger for SRDI SMEs in the Yangtze River Delta than for those outside the region.

Taken together, the findings of this study elucidate the mechanismunderlying cognitive diversity and ambidextrous innovation, as well as howresource integration exerts its moderating role in this linkage. These results not only deepen applied research on distributed teams in the innovationmanagement of SRDI SMEs and uncover the detailed underlying mechanismof distributed teams on ambidextrous innovation, but also verify the moderating effect of resource integration in the relationship between cognitive diversity and ambidextrous innovation, thus enriching the literature ondistributed teams and ambidextrous innovation. Furthermore, this study offers both theoretical and practical guidance for SRDI SMEs to strategicallyleverage the distributed team model to enhance the transformation efficiencyof ambidextrous innovation.

Keywords

distributed team, cognitive diversity, market agility, ambidextrous innovation, resource integration

Degree Awarded

Doctor of Business Administration (Accounting and Finance)

Discipline

Strategic Management Policy | Technology and Innovation

Supervisor(s)

GENG, Xuesong

First Page

1

Last Page

169

Publisher

Singapore Management University

City or Country

Singapore

Copyright Owner and License

Author

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