| In the face of a complex environment where opportunities and risks coexist,how to balance exploitative and explorative activities effectively and to achieve international ambidexterity successfully is becoming an important issue in the study of the internationalization process in emerging economies.This study identified two kinds of international activities from the spatial dimension based on the ambidexterity perspective:Depth-based exploitation activities and breadth-based exploration activities.Based on the Combination of these two activities and the temporal dimension,two kinds of international paths of ambidexterity are also refined:The Cyclical Equilibrium Path in which the exploitation and the exploration take place in succession,and the Harmonic Equilibrium Path in which the exploitation and the exploration take place at the same time.By using the method of crisp-set of qualitative comparative analysis,this paper makes an integrated analysis of 24 Chinese enterprises which with international ambidexterity characteristics in their foreign direct investment behavior in the countries along the "the belt and road" line from 2009 to 2016.This study found that the configuration of Cyclical Equilibrium Path can be divided into three types:similar environment utilization,senior management cognitive transformation,and internal and external matching interaction;the configuration of Harmonic Equilibrium Path can be divided into four types:resource seeking driving,situation cultivation,responding through behavior integration,and leadership change driving.The Cyclical Equilibrium Path emphasizes the complementary mechanism between exploitative and explorative activities,while the Harmonic Equilibrium Path emphasizes the cooperative mechanism between them.The realization of the Harmonic Equilibrium Path is more difficult than that of Cyclical Equilibrium Path,but it is more beneficial to the enterprises’ long-term development.The theoretical contributions of this paper are lie in:First,the construction of ambidexterity ability is put into the process of internationalization,revealing the rich connotation and complex characteristics of international ambidexterity,and expanding the application of strategic ambidexterity in the field of international business.Although many achievements in the field of international business have considered the use of strategic ambidexterity to study the internationalization behavior of enterprises,and recognized that ambidexterity is a necessary high-order dynamic capability for multinational enterprises in emerging economies to compete in the global market in the future,it is still limited to the construction of ambidexterity as a difference in the number of overseas subsidiaries of different natures or the difference in conventional capabilities at a particular stage of internationalization.This paper innovatively puts the construction of ambidexterity capabilities of multinational enterprises in emerging economies into the process of internationalization.It holds that enterprises construct ambidexterity capabilities in the process of internationalization and display them through the path of internationalization,which will help scholars understand the profound connotation of international ambidexterity.The second is to enrich the research results of internationalization path and make up for the limitations and deficiencies of the research carried out under the mainstream theoretical framework of internationalization process.First,this study adopts the perspective of ambidexterity theory,comprehensively considers the time dimension and the space dimension,deeply digs up the different theoretical logics for constructing ambidexterity capabilities,and then condenses and classifies the international ambidexterity paths,which will help to refine the existing research on international paths.Secondly,this study constructs an international ambidexterity path model integrating multiple factors across layers,and uses qualitative comparative analysis method to merge the implementation configurations of different international ambidexterity paths(the Cyclical Equilibrium Path or the Harmonic Equilibrium Path),which will help reveal the complex mechanism of driving factors of international paths.The practical significance of this study lies in that it has important practical significance and practical enlightenment for the formulation of relevant policies and the implementation of measures of the Chinese government,as well as for the strategic decision-making and team building of Chinese enterprises,especially for providing guidance for the selection of internationalization paths.In order to provide better value guidance for the internationalization of Chinese enterprises,the Chinese government should establish a professional evaluation team to investigate the deep-seated cultural characteristics of various countries through in-depth investigation and field observation of countries along the "the belt and road" line.For the "the belt and road" database construction projects that scientific research institutes and enterprises cooperate with.financial support will be given to combine the "going out" experience of Chinese enterprises with the research resources of scientific research institutes to produce databases or research reports that are more instructive to Chinese enterprises.For the enterprise itself,it is not only necessary to cultivate the managers’ "integration view"and "paradox integration" management ideas,but also to make them accurately position the development and exploration behavior within the enterprise,weigh their own resources,the structure and composition of the senior management team,the ownership structure,and the institutional environment of the target market,and make a strategic decision to choose the Cyclical Equilibrium Path or the Harmonic Equilibrium Path based on a comprehensive analysis.Chinese enterprises can choose the internationalization path that is more suitable for their actual conditions and external environment.It is also meaningful to discuss ambidexterity in the context of China.Overview previous studies,scholars combined the traditional Chinese theory of "Yin-Yang" and put forward the perspective of "paradox transcendence",holding that although"explorationr"and "exploitation" are in a state of contradiction in essence,there is a relationship of mutual dependence and transformation,which can be unified into a whole state.However,like the "Yin-Yang" theory,the two elements are bound to oppose each other and maintain stability(Li zijie and Gao cong,2016).In the process of internationalization of Chinese enterprises,both "exploration" and"exploitation"behaviors are faced with the preemption of resources and the inclination of decision-making,while the complexity of the "the belt and road" system faced by enterprises makes it more difficult to balance it.If an enterprise only pays attention to one of them,it will break the relationship between the two paradoxes and the dynamic balance between "exploration" and "exploitation".The discussion of the ambidexterity theory in this study also draws on the importance of Chinese traditional culture in viewing the perspective of manager integration. |
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