The Impact Of Absorptive Capacity And Intrinsic Motivation On Students Ambidexterity Performance:Do Environment-fit Matter?

Organizational learning scholars and psychologist's have long considered human cognitive capabilities and self-motivation as determinants of inquisitiveness,learning and innovation performance both at the macro and micro levels.However,how students absorptive capacity and intrinsic motivation influence their perceived exploration and exploitation performance has not yet been sufficiently addressed.In addition,how students strive to balance exploration and exploitation trade-offs and whether their specific academic environmental fit serves as a better mechanism to achieve desired and expected dynamic and novel outcomes in educational settings has been left un-tackled.The purpose of this study is,therefore,to understand and predict with empirical evidence possible psycho-cognitive factors likely to have independent and mediating effects on exploration and exploitation performance of students in higher education institutions.We draw on theories of absorptive capacity,self-determination and interactionist to proposed a predictive conceptual framework that discusses how absorptive capacity and intrinsic motivation influence exploration and exploitation through the mediation role of organizational fit capabilities of students in the Ghanaian context.We adopt the quantitative research approach which is exploratory in nature and deals with the research hypotheses and questions under investigation.The quantitative inquiry adopted is a cross-sectional one supported by quantitative statistical analysis,a typical empirical paradigm.We draw conclusions using generated 419 valid data collected from students through an online based survey from selected public universities and institutions in Northern,Greater Accra and Central regions of Ghana and computer data analysis using structural equation modeling technique(AMOS 24 and SPSS software).We sampled participants based on convenience sampling also known as availability sampling which is categorized as a non-probability sampling method.Results indicate that while absorptive capacity does not show a direct significant influence on exploration,there is a stronger influence when the organization fit serves as a mediator between absorptive capacity and exploration relationship.This means that students achieve exploration performance not when they have higher absorptive capacity but only when they are also able to fit into their academic environment.Also,findings have shown that absorptive capacity is directly related to exploitation while organization fit has also shown to serve as a significant mediator on the absorptive capacity and exploitation relationship.Findings also have revealed the absorptive capacity to be significantly related to organizational fit.Further,intrinsic motivation shown to be related positively to organization fit,while also having an indirectly significant influence on both exploration and exploitation through the mediation role of organization fit.This moreover also means that students achieve exploration and exploitation performance only when they possess goodwill of higher intrinsic motivation and as well fit into their academic environment.Finally,organization fit is found to directly affect exploration and exploitation in significant ways.Our study makes crucial advancements to the absorptive capacity,motivation,environment fit,and the exploration and exploitation literature by implementing a predictive conceptual model to understand the relationships among these operationalized study variables.Specifically,we offer a clear conceptual adaptation of the psycho-cognitive theories,interactionist fit and organizational learning phenomenon into higher education and research productivity fields.We suggest based on the findings that Universities and research institutions could create a conducive atmosphere to support students cognitive capacity building,psychological enhancement,academic autonomy,a platform for diversity,knowledge sharing and technical opportunities enhancing collaborative learning for effective environmental adaptation.We also highlight the importance of environment-fit-awareness when considering psycho-cognitive-factors in academic mentorship development and productivity to students induction for exploration and exploitation in higher education settings.