Ambidextrous strategy for improving innovation performance of multinationals in a turbulent environment: the moderating role of improvisational ability

Ambidextrous strategy for improving innovation performance of multinationals in a turbulent environment: the moderating role of improvisational ability | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Ambidextrous strategy for improving innovation performance of multinationals in a turbulent environment: the moderating role of improvisational ability Yifei Chen, Dong Liu, Peng Xiao This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6809582/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 12 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This study attempts to answer the question of how multinational corporations adapt their strategies to cope with the volatile international business environment from the perspective of ambidexterity and improvisation. This study establishes a moderating model between international ambidexterity, improvisational ability and innovation performance. The sample analysis of 626 Chinese multinational companies using SPSS software shows that: (1) the balance dimension of ambidextrous strategy has a positive impact on innovation performance; (2) the combined dimension of ambidextrous strategy has a positive impact on innovation performance and has a greater effect than the balanced dimension; (3) improvisational ability not only directly promotes the improvement of innovation performance, but also has different moderating effects on the relationship between different dimensions of ambidextrous strategy and innovation performance. JEL codes A10; F23; L25; M16; O30; P20 Business and commerce/Business and management Social science/Development studies Social science/Economics Ambidextrous strategy Ambidexterity Innovation performance Improvisational ability Multinationals Figures Figure 1 1 Introduction The post-COVID-19 international business environment seems to face many problems. More and more countries have adopted policies favoring domestic companies and increased the screening and examination of foreign companies, which has increased the pressure on multinational companies to operate and manage in host countries. In addition, issues such as the energy crisis and climate change on a global scale, stronger national protectionism and supply chain shortages have put multinational enterprises (MNEs) under increasing pressure to globalized or cross-border licensing (Chetty, Gabrielsson & Gabrielsson, 2024 ). As a result, some studies have pointed out that the strategy and management of multinational corporations will fundamentally change. Risk aversion, nationalism and protectionism will become more pronounced. However, we agree with Contractor ( 2022 ) that the basic principles of globalization are still sound, and the world after the Covid-19 pandemic will still maintain the trend of globalization. Because of fragmentation and inequality, MNEs will still be able to create opportunities for aggregation and arbitrage (Ghemawat, 2007 ). As an international bridge, the multinational corporation not only benefits traders and their alliances, but also enables consumers in both home and host countries to enjoy goods and services with lower prices and better quality (Contractor, 2022 ). Because of the improvement of production methods and organizational structure due to transnational management, competition will intensify (Contractor, 2022 ). Although the globalization trajectory of the world economy has become increasingly uncertain, and multinational companies are faced with the task of re-examining their "global" value chains, re-evaluating internationalization strategies and innovation (Petricevic & Teece, 2019 ), the globalization trend of the world economy is still moving forward after the pandemic. The key is that, given the existing problems of over-dependence on global value chains, protectionism and risk aversion, how can multinational companies adjust their international operating strategies to effectively cope with these changes? Luo and Rui ( 2009 ) proposed an ambidexterity perspective and argued that while all companies need and maintain a certain degree of ambidexterity, Emerging market multinational enterprises (EM MNEs) have the stronger motivation and the ability to build and leverage such ambidexterity to offset the late-mover disadvantages. Prange and Verdier ( 2011 ) also emphasize ambidexterity in the internationalization process. They believe that continuous interaction between various internationalization processes (exploration and exploitation) can promote the survival and growth of multinational enterprises, and formally propose the concept of "international ambidexterity". Obviously, ambidexterity has become an important perspective to study the internationalization and innovation performance of EM MNEs. However, the existing research does not seem to have an in-depth discussion on whether and how international ambidexterity promotes innovation performance (Khan, Amankwah-Amoah, Lew, Puthusserry, & Czinkota, 2022 ). Although the mainstream view believes that international ambidexterity has a positive impact on innovation performance, the existing researches always focus on testing this positive effect and we still lack the theoretical framework and empirical data on the process mechanism of international ambidexterity on innovation performance (Hu, Dou, You, 2023 ; Hsu, Lien, Chen, 2013 ). This limits the utilization of the positive effects of ambidexterity strategy by multinational enterprises. The international business literature of the past has fully emphasized the importance of innovation to enhance long-term competitive advantage, but today's competitive model may be changing (Cao, Ma, Ning, Sun, 2023). The post-COVID-19 international business environment is characterized by significant uncertainty and time pressures, and the uncertainty and dynamics of international markets have greatly increased (Hilmersson, Johanson, Papaioannou, & Lundberg, 2022 ). Long-term competitive advantages may no longer exist, and multinational companies must quickly adjust their international operations and strategies to cope with uncertain events and manage risks, and improve the efficiency of innovation, or they are likely to be completely overwhelmed in the fierce competition and change (Prashantham & Floyd, 2019 ). Only in this way can it be possible to obtain many short-term or even instantaneous competitive advantages, and then pursue the steady development on this basis. In fact, in order to achieve the goal of instantaneous competition, improvisation has also existed in multinational corporations. The literature holds that improvisation is an important strategy for rapid response to the environment (Wu et al., 2023 ), which has been introduced from opera and other artistic fields to the entrepreneurial field and has been well developed (Hmieleski, Corbett, & Baron, 2013 ). Studies have shown that faced with such a complex international environment, it is necessary for multinational companies to adopt improvisation techniques and shorten the time interval between planning and execution to speed up the response to external changes (Hilmersson, Johanson, Papaioannou, & Lundberg, 2022 ). To this end, MNEs need to develop improvisation and accelerate the learning process (2024). However, there are few researches on the improvisation ability in all levels of innovation of multinational corporations. In fact, leaders of multinational companies may have already adopted actions to cultivate organizational improvisation, but the impact of such strategic behavior on corporate performance, especially innovation, has not been identified. Previous literature has reached a consensus that improvisation in itself is not good or bad. We need to further understand whether improvisation affects the performance of international operations and the performance of innovation. Does improvisation make an ambidextrous international strategy more effective? The purpose of this study is to identify whether the ambidextrous internationalization strategy of a multinational corporation contributes to more innovation, and we also consider the moderating effect of improvisational ability on the relationship between the two. This article will make contributions in the following aspects. First, this study identifies the characteristics of the ambidextrous internationalization strategy of Chinese multinational corporations, and discusses the positive effects of this strategy in responding to changes in the external environment and improving innovation performance. Thus, we broaden the scope of application of ambidexterity theory in the field of innovation management. Secondly, this study extends the improvisation research in the field of art to the field of innovation research, and discusses the impact of the improvisation ability of multinational corporations on the implementation of ambidextrous internationalization strategy. It not only expands the boundaries of organizational improvisation research, but also complements innovative research in the field of international business. The rest of the study is organized as follows. Section 2 is a detailed review of the relevant literature. Section 3 summarizes the relevant theoretical basis and puts forward the research hypothesis. Section 4 describes data sources and estimation methods. Section 5 presents the results of the empirical study and our discussion of the results. Finally, we conclude this paper by presenting the conclusions of this study and some possible shortcomings in Section 6 . 2 Literature review 2.1 Exploitative internationalization, explorative internationalization and international ambidexterity The research on internationalization was first carried out around multinational enterprises in developed countries (such as North America, Europe, and Japan). The traditional international business theory emphasizes the exploitation orientation of internationalization (Baker & Sinkula, 1999 ; Albertoni, Elia, & Piscitello, 2019 ). The literature argues that enterprises need to accumulate certain advantages in technical strength, marketing channels, human resources, and other aspects before international expansion, to make use of existing advantages (Rugman, 1978 ; Dunning, 1981 ; Buckley, Clegg, Cross, Liu, Voss, & Zheng, 2007 ). However, the rapid rise of EM MNEs has led to some limitations of the traditional internationalization theory. For example, EM MNEs from developing countries do not have ownership advantages (Makino, Lau, & Yeh, 2002 ), but still successfully expand internationally in both developing and developed countries (Verbeke, 2008 ). Contrary to traditional theoretical assumptions, EM MNEs do not have advantages in terms of technology and resources, but they tend to participate in international operations in high-commitment ways such as cross-border mergers and acquisitions. Researchers have tried to explain this unique international phenomenon from multiple theoretical perspectives. For example, Mathews ( 2002 ) proposed the "LLL" theory (link-age, leverage, learning), and Luo and Tung ( 2007 ) proposed the famous springboard theory to explain that multinational enterprises regard the international market as a springboard to make up for competitive advantages. Researchers believe that multinational enterprises acquire innovative knowledge and resources through "exploration" in the international market, to make up for their competitive advantages and achieve technological catch-up (Elia, Kafouros, & Buckley, 2020 ; Xie & Li, 2017 ). Existing research provides a good basis for understanding the motivations of multinationals in emerging markets, but does not provide more in-depth insights into how to successfully improve innovation performance through internationalization. Studies on ambidexterity provide a valuable perspective to explain the differences in the internationalization performance of multinational enterprises. Since multinational enterprises operate in the complex and uncertain international market, and many enterprises are faced with the "productivity dilemma" caused by limited resources (Utterback & Abernathy, 1975 ; Luo, 2002 ), it is a common difficulty for all multinational enterprises to deal with the tension between survival and growth (Duncan, 1976). Luo and Rui ( 2009 ) proposed an ambidexterity perspective on the international expansion of EM MNEs, and deconstructed ambidexterity into "co-evolution, co-competence, co-opetition, co-orientation". Prange and Verdier ( 2011 ) proposed the concept of "international ambidexterity" when they analyzed the difference between "growth" and "survival" in international performance. Prange and Verdier ( 2011 ) explained "international ambidexterity" as "third-order dynamic internationalization capabilities". They believe that only sustained interaction between diverse processes of internationalization can simultaneously achieve international growth and survival. The challenge for companies is to deal with the paradox of ambidexterity and ease the tension between exploratory and exploratory activities in order to achieve superior short and long-term performance (Berraies, Hamza, & Chtioui, 2021 ). However, the application of ambidexterity theory in the field of internationalization is still in the stage of logical reasoning, and the empirical evidence on the relationship between international ambidexterity and innovation performance is still lacking (Clauss, Kraus, Kallinger, Bican, Brem, & Kailer, 2020 ). Although studies on international business actively emphasize the importance of ambidextrous strategy and scholars have preliminarily tested the impact of international ambidexterity on innovation performance (Prange & Verdier, 2011 ; Khan, Amankwah-Amoah, Lew, Puthusserry, & Czinkota, 2022 ), it is still unclear whether the relationship between the two is direct or indirect. In fact, this lack of research limits the potential of ambidextrous strategies to improve innovation performance. 2.2 Improvisation and Improvisational ability At present, how enterprises cope with environmental uncertainty has received extensive attention from scholars, and improvisation is considered to be an effective way for enterprises to cope with rapid changes and obtain unexpected opportunities (Hu et al., 2018 ). The study of improvisation was initially focused on the field of art (drama, music, dance, etc.), which refers to the performer's improvisation from the original script or script during the performance (Ciuchta et al., 2021 ). This kind of performance is mostly achieved by the performer in some unexpected situations according to the current reality, which is some unplanned behavior. Later, the study of improvisation gradually expanded to medical care (Embrey et al., 1996 ), education (Baker et al., 2003 ) and disaster relief (Mendonca, Beroggi & Wallace,2001). From the perspective of time process, in the 1960s, organization researchers had a preliminary understanding of improvisation, but at that time, most of them regarded improvisation in organizations as a manifestation of dysfunction and did not pay enough attention to it. Until the 1990s, under the appeal and advocacy of a group of scholars such as Weick ( 1993 ), scholars in the field of organizational management began to pay more attention to the role of improvisation in organizational behavior. Since then, organizational improvisation has gradually developed into a new research field in organizational theory. Research on organizational improvisation in different research contexts has confirmed that improvisation is not only a universal organizational behavior, but also has an important impact on the survival and development of organizations (Weick, 1993 ; Moorman & Miner, 1998 ). The influence of organizational improvisation is not always positive. Existing studies have shown the positive and negative results of organizational improvisation under different factors. Among the existing research results, the positive effects mainly include that organizational improvisation can maintain organizational flexibility (Samra et al., 2008 ), promote organizational change (Orlikowski, 1996 ), and promote new product development and innovation (Eisenhardt,1995). There are also some studies that show that improvisation can enhance members' emotions. On the contrary, the negative effects are reflected in the possibility of leading to opportunity traps, over-dependence, and learning bias (Cunha et al., 1999 ). The current research on improvisation and improvisation in organizations is not in-depth in business research journals, and we only see a few research results. Davis, Eisenhardt and Bingham ( 2009 ) studied the impromptu behavior of new enterprises when they enter the foreign market and found that impromptu choice of opportunities did not bring the success of the company, because at this time the company may pursue the current perceived opportunities rather than long-term profits. Evers and O 'Gorman (2011) observed that new enterprises adopt improvisational strategies in the early stage of internationalization, and they quickly identify foreign market opportunities to achieve successful entry. Vera et al. ( 2016 ) put forward the concept of improvisation in response to the research of R&D teams. They believe that improvisation can be regarded as a kind of ability, which is crucial to the survival of entrepreneurial teams. In a recent study, Chetty, Gabrielsson & Gabrielsson ( 2024 ) studied companies in New Zealand and Finland to reveal how companies develop improvisational skills to gain international business knowledge. Although the role of improvisation in a rapidly changing environment has attracted increasing academic attention, little is known about the conditions under which businesses benefit from improvisation (Liu et al.,2018). 3 Theoretical development and Hypotheses 3.1 The impact of international ambidexterity on innovation performance The simultaneous pursuit of survival and growth is a common problem faced by all multinational enterprises, because ambidexterity essentially means two opposing organizational needs (Liu, Collinson, Cooper, & Baglieri, 2021 ). From the perspective of resource allocation, these are two distinct and contradictory goals (Prange & Verdier, 2011 ). Growth (exploration) usually requires a huge investment, while survival (exploitation) tends to accumulate income through the existing base (Cho & Pucik, 2005 ). Studies show that the internationalization process of enterprises requires different dynamic capabilities to seize and continuously explore foreign markets (Prange & Verdier, 2011 ). As one of the goals of internationalization for many enterprises, innovation depends on good internationalization performance to accumulate knowledge and improve innovation performance. Therefore, the balance between exploration and exploitation of third-order dynamic internationalization capability is the key to achieving innovation in the process of internationalization. H1. International ambidexterity actively promotes the innovation performance of multinational corporations. Referring to the definition of the balance dimension of organizational ambidexterity (Cao, Gedajlovic, & Zhang, 2009 ), we believe that the balance dimension of international ambidexterity refers to the relative balance of exploratory and exploitative activities in scale achieved through coordination mechanism. The balance dimension of international ambidexterity requires multinational corporations to simultaneously implement exploratory and exploitative internationalization without preference (Wu & Chen, 2018), which means that multinational corporations will allocate resources evenly between exploration and exploitation (Wu, Wood, Chen, Meyer, & Liu, 2019 ). Thus, multinational enterprises can gain different benefits from conducting exploratory and exploitative activities simultaneously and avoid the disadvantages of a single internationalization process (Hsu, Lien, & Chen, 2013 ). Exploitative internationalization will ensure that multinationals can quickly adapt and leverage existing strengths in foreign markets where institutions, cultures, and market requirements are different from those of their home countries (Prange & Verdier, 2011 ; Tian, Deng, Zhang & Salmador, 2018 ). Exploratory internationalization usually focuses on extensive exploration and learning in the host country market, helping multinational enterprises acquire new technologies and human resources related to innovation, and mastering cutting-edge information of industry development (Makino, Lau, & Yeh, 2002 ; Thite, Wilkinsonb, Budhwar, & Mathews, 2015 ). In addition, if enterprises overemphasize the utilization of existing capabilities and advantages while neglecting the cultivation of new capabilities and exploration of new knowledge, it may lead to "capability trap" (He & Wong, 2004 ). Similarly, a firm's aggressive commitment to exploration is likely to slow down the rate of further improvement of existing capabilities (March, 1991 ) and entails the risk of continuing to invest without a return. Based on the above analysis, we propose the following hypothesis: H1a. The balance dimension of international ambidexterity positively promotes the innovation performance of multinational corporations. Referring to the definition of the combined dimension of organizational ambidexterity, we argue that the combined dimension of international ambidexterity refers to the size of the combination of exploration and exploitation in the degree of execution when both are implemented simultaneously. Although previous studies have argued that exploration and exploitation are committed to completely different goals and have completely different requirements for organizational structure and capabilities, the joint dimension of international ambidexterity emphasizes that exploration and exploitation are not completely competitive and opposite (Cao, Gedajlovic, & Zhang, 2009 ). Rather, they are different but complementary options for shaping, utilizing, and building capabilities and competitive advantages (He & Wong, 2004 ; Gupta, Smith, & Shalley, 2006 ). More specifically, exploitation helps transnational enterprises to leverage existing resource advantages and make them continuously add value (Ciasullo, Montera, Cucari, & Polese, 2020 ). Exploration seeks to experiment with new activities, processes, and relationships, thereby developing new capabilities and accumulating new resources (Levinthal & March, 1993 ). Besides, through high-quality exploitative activities, the organization fully understands the existing capabilities and is fully familiar with the organizational process, which is conducive to improving the enterprise's ability to identify and absorb external knowledge and resources, which is closely related to organizational renewal and the development of new products and technologies (Zahra & George 2002 ). The process of exploration also promotes the process of exploitation. As enterprises internalize more external knowledge and resources through exploration, their exploitation will be carried out in a larger capacity pool, and the scale of exploitation of efficient routines and processes will increase accordingly (Cao, Gedajlovic, & Zhang, 2009 ). Therefore, this article assumes: H1b. The combined dimension of international ambidexterity positively promotes the innovation performance of multinational corporations. 3.2 The positive effect of improvisation on innovation The rapid development of digital technology has intensified the uncertainty of the business environment, and the importance of improvisational behavior in today's changeable international competitive environment has received increasing attention (Hughes, Morgan, Hodgkinson, Kouropalatis & Lindgreen, 2020 ). This study focuses on the positive effects of improvisation on organizational innovation performance. Research has shown that improvisation has the potential to promote organizational learning (Ciuchta et al, 2021 ), thus helping organizations to further enrich their capabilities and achieve innovation. Multinational companies may need to deal more frequently and quickly with unusual needs and requirements from customers, suppliers or governments, as well as unexpected events. The literature describes a process of learning from improvisation that involves selectively retaining lessons learned from improvisation events and analysing them over a longer period of time, where improvisation creates the conditions for learning (Prashantham & Floyd, 2019 ). Companies with superior improvisation skills are able to learn from improvisation and form new routines that can serve as drivers of organizational performance (Wu et al., 2023 ). Organizations with strong improvisation allow members the freedom to deviate from established norms, generate innovation, and then give feedback to the organization through a broader learning process (Crossan, Lane, & White, 1999 ). In addition, many studies have shown that organizational improvisation may lead to unexpected discoveries (2021). Rond ( 2014 ) argues that companies that allow improvisation promote unplanned interactions and are prepared for unexpected discoveries. Several studies have shown that in a relaxed or informal work environment where ideas and information flow freely, interactions among members can easily lead to unexpected discoveries and gains (Cunha et al., 2010 ), which provides the conditions for innovation. Therefore, we assume that: H2. Improvisational ability has a positive impact on innovation performance. 3.3 Improvisational ability and its moderating effect We inherited the idea of Yeniarasa et al (2021), which defined improvisation asa way to develop, the ability to deal with emergent problems and unexpected opportunities spontaneously and quickly (Vera, Nemanich, V´elez-Castrillon & Werner, 2016 ). In the new context, the validity of existing organizational theories characterized by order and control is challenged. Improvisational strategy provides the possibility to deal with unexpected events effectively and try to solve problems in novel ways. Improvisation often implies a departure from previous conventions and technical know-how to ensure novelty and effectiveness (Parida et al., 2013 ). New ideas/new processes/new products or services generated through improvisation may form new organizational practices or promote the development of new capabilities (Parida et al., 2013 ; Prashantham & Floyd, 2019 ), such as innovation capability (Valaei et al., 2017). These capabilities will provide conditions for enterprises to effectively respond to emergencies and risks and promote continuous innovation. Our dynamic improvisation capabilities in entering foreign markets support the rapid development of experience and knowledge, which is an important learning mechanism for multinational companies (Chetty, Gabrielsson & Gabrielsson, 2024 ). Lack of knowledge can be an important challenge for companies to internationalize. If improvisation can be developed, international companies can accelerate the acquisition of international business knowledge or quickly learn some unexpected experiences to overcome this barrier (Chetty, Gabrielsson & Gabrielsson, 2024 ). In addition, improvisation has been found to be positively correlated with client capital, strategic performance, and financial performance (Yeniaras et al., 2021 ). An international company may implement a local area network based on the development of improvisation capabilities, thus enabling the company to enter foreign markets smoothly and rapidly accumulate international business knowledge (Chetty, Gabrielsson & Gabrielsson, 2024 ). Organizational improvisation enables managers to quickly and creatively adapt to changes in the external environment and make adjustments to products and services to achieve stable operation in turbulent times (Liu et al., 2018 ). Studies have shown that improvisation can play a key role in enterprise innovation when the external environment is highly uncertain (Vera and Crossan,2005). If an enterprise has the ability to learn from improvisation, it is more likely to improve its innovation ability through improvisation, thus achieving better innovation performance (Liu et al., 2018 ). H3a. Improvisational ability positively moderates the relationship between the balance dimension of international ambidexterity and innovation performance. H3b. Improvisational ability positively moderates the relationship between the combined dimension of international ambidexterity and innovation performance. Through the above analysis, we construct the conceptual framework of this paper (shown in Fig. 1 ). 4 Methodology 4.1 Sample and Data source This study collected data by questionnaire survey. The respondents were mainly middle and senior managers of multinationals. The items in the questionnaire are designed concerning classic questionnaires widely used in the international business and innovation literature. Before determining the final version of the questionnaire, we invited 50 respondents to take a preliminary survey on the draft questionnaire. Based on the survey feedback, the researchers modified items in the questionnaire that were difficult to understand or did not fit the Chinese context, with the aim of improving the accuracy and comprehensibility of the tool. To test the hypothesis, we take samples from Chinese multinational enterprises. Since the economic reform in 1978, China has successively implemented the "Bring In" and "Go Global" strategies, which are considered to be the key for China's economic sectors to upgrade the innovation value chain (Lyles, Tsang, Li, Hong, Cooke, & Lu, 2022 ). These policies have led to massive investment flows into China and helped Chinese enterprises successfully internationalize into both emerging market economies and developed economies (Verbeke, 2008 ), thus having a significant impact on both China and the host countries of outbound investment (Wang, Piperopoulos, Chen, Ming, & Herbert, 2022 ). China has become one of the most suitable backgrounds for studying outbound investment and domestic innovation performance (Li, Strange, Ning, & Sutherland, 2016 ). As the scope has been limited to China, three different methods were adopted in this study to issue questionnaires to expand the diversity of sample sources. First of all, 800 questionnaires were distributed to multinational enterprises across the country through the professional website "Questionnaire Star", and 556 responses were received. Second, because the researchers were from different universities, we asked MBA students from those schools to take the test. 200 questionnaires were distributed on-site, and 147 questionnaires were collected. Finally, 100 questionnaires were distributed to middle and senior managers of multinational companies through the network of friends and relatives, and 52 questionnaires were recovered. The researchers screened out invalid questionnaires based on the following criteria: (1) blank answer sheets for all or part of the questions; (2) most of the answers were the same as in the other questionnaire; (3) invalid samples with the same answers to 95% or more questions in the questionnaire. After eliminating 129 invalid samples, 626 valid samples were retained, and the effective response rate was 56.91%. Table 1 shows the sample structure of this study. Table 1 Sample structure (n = 626) Industry Frequency Percentage Manufacturing 260 41.53% Non-manufacturing 366 58.47% Nature of ownership State-owned enterprise 52 8.31% Other 574 91.69% Age (years of operation) 5 481 76.84% Size (number of employees) 1000 189 30.19% 4.2 Measures Dependent variable. The literature measures innovation performance in a variety of ways, for example, new product value (Hagedoorn & Cloodt, 2003 ), and innovation patent index (Ponta, Puliga, & Manzini, 2021 ). A patent is widely regarded as a good indicator to measure innovation performance (Lungeanu, Stern, & Zajac, 2016 ; Ma & Lee, 2008 ). However, this measurement ignores the defect that patents cannot represent all innovations. Hence, in many pieces of research, indicators such as R&D investment, number of patents, and number of standards hosted or participated in the formulation are also used to measure innovation performance (Cai & Dang, 2015). In this study, the Likert scale proposed by Baker and Sinkula ( 1999 ) was used to measure innovation performance (as shown in Table 2 ). Independent variable. International ambidexterity. Following Makino, Lau, and Yeh ( 2002 ), we measure international ambidexterity in terms of two different dimensions, the balance, and combined dimensions. Since the concept of "international ambidexterity" is developed based on organizational ambidexterity, we represent international ambidexterity by calculating the results of exploratory internationalization and exploitative internationalization (Gibson & Birkinshaw, 2004). Referring to Makino, Lau, and Yeh ( 2002 ) and Hsu, Lien, and Chen ( 2013 ), this paper measured exploratory internationalization and exploitative internationalization using a 5-item Likert scale, respectively, ranging from "1" (strongly disagree) to "7" (strongly agree). We refer to Cao, Gedajlovic, Zhang ( 2009 ), and Zhang and Duan (2010) for calculating the balance dimension and the combined dimension of international ambidexterity. Specifically, the balance dimension is expressed as 5 minus the absolute deviation of exploratory and exploitative internationalization, and the combined dimension is expressed as the product of exploratory and exploitative internationalization. Moderating variable. The definition of improvisation ability in this study is based on some classical studies, so the measurement of improvisation ability is based on mature measurement scales. We refer to the existing literature on the definition of organizational improvisation, which not only considers transnational corporations to act quickly in response to changes in external environment and unexpected opportunities in a novel way (Yeniarasa et al.,2021), but also takes into account the spontaneity and immediacy of improvisation itself. Attention is paid to the degree to which improvisation is integrated in creation and execution (Moorman and Miner, 1998 ). Therefore, this study referred to Vera and Crosaan (2005), Liu et al ( 2018 ) and Wu et al ( 2023 ) and adapted the measurement items in the study, and obtained five measurement items suitable for this study: the company can handle accidents on site; The company's decision on emergent problems and subsequent implementation are almost simultaneous; Companies are constantly trying to solve problems in novel ways; Companies sometimes take risks to adopt new approaches or try new opportunities; Companies are able to learn new processes and knowledge from the experience of temporary creation. Control variables. This study controls for the influence of several variables that may affect the innovation performance of multinational corporations. First, previous studies have shown that large companies have more resources for R&D activities (Piperopoulos, Wu, & Wang, 2017 ), so firm size may have an impact on corporate innovation output. Secondly, firm age is another control variable, because research has confirmed the influence of firm age on corporate innovation performance. The third controlling variable is the own nature of the business. According to the literature, compared with private enterprises, state-owned enterprises have more resources for international expansion and innovation, so the nature of enterprise ownership is a variable that needs to be controlled. We treat this variable as a dummy variable, coded as "1" if a multinational is state-owned, or "0" if not. The last control variable is the firm's sales revenue in the previous fiscal year. According to Li and Yu (2016), the sales revenue of an enterprise has a positive impact on innovation performance, so we take this factor into the scope of control. 4.3 Common method Bias test Two homologous variance tests were performed by Harman single factor test and confirmatory factor analysis. Harman single-factor test results show that the first common factor accounts for 36.92% of the total load without rotation (< 40%) (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee, Podsakoff, 2003 ). In addition, the results of confirmatory factor analysis showed that the single-factor model was poorly fitted (X2/df = 23.114, RMSER = 0.123, CFI = 0.574, TLI = 0.503, GFI = 0.617). Therefore, there is no common methodological bias in this study. 5 Results 5.1 Measurement model Reliability analysis. In this study, combination reliability (CR) and internal consistency (represented by Cronbach alpha) were used to evaluate the reliability of the scale. In this study, CR and Cronbach alpha (α) values greater than 0.7 were used as criteria (MacKenzie, Podsakoff, & Podsakoff, 2011 ). Table 2 shows that α ranges from 0.862 to 0.885and CR ranges from 0.862 to 0.886. Therefore, the scale has high internal consistency and combination reliability. Validity analysis. According to Fornell and Larcker ( 1981 ), convergent validity and discriminate validity were tested by the average variance extracted (AVE) (Because the researchers had clear expectations of the relationship between measures and variables. Therefore, this study obtained standardized factor loading of each project through confirmatory factor analysis, and calculated AVE). It can be seen from Table 2 that the AVE range is 0.555 to 0.609 (all greater than 0.5), indicating that this model meets the criteria for evaluating convergent validity. In addition, according to Table 2 , it can be seen that the square root of the AVE value of each variable is higher than the correlation coefficient between each variable and any other variable, so the scale has good discriminate validity (correlation between variables is obtained through confirmatory factor analysis). In addition, we examined the questionnaire structure by confirmatory factor analysis. The test results show that X2/df = 2.318; RMSEA = 0.020; NFI = 0.958; RFI = 0.949; IFI = 0.976; TLI = 0.970; CFI = 0.975. Therefore, the model fits well and the scale has the characteristics of a four-factor structure model. Table 2 Results of reliability and validity analysis Variables Measure item Loadings α CR AVE Square root of AVE 1 2 1 Exploratory internationalization 1. Obtain high level R&D and management talents from overseas 0.733 0.863 0.863 0.558 0.747 2. Obtain technological and marketing resources for innovation 0.764 3. Merge into foreign innovative atmosphere and obtain spillover effects 0.726 4. Use effective foreign R&D hardware infrastructure 0.781 5. Establish cooperative relationship with local leading firms 0.729 2 Exploitative internationalization 1. Use technological advantages of enterprises in foreign markets 0.733 0.862 0.862 0.555 0.745 0.742*** 2. Enter foreign markets and expand development space 0.769 3. Produce products meeting the needs of foreign customers 0.725 4. Establish manufacturing base to reduce transportation cost 0.731 5. Use cheap labor and material resources in foreign markets 0.767 3 Improvisational ability 1. We are able to deal with accidents on site 0.766 0.885 0.886 0.609 0.780 0.149*** 0.203*** 2. Our decisions on emergent issues and subsequent implementation are almost simultaneous 0.722 3. We are constantly trying to solve problems in novel ways 0.714 4. We sometimes take risks to take new approaches or try new opportunities 0.863 5. We are able to learn new processes and knowledge from the experience of temporary creation 0.826 Note: Significance level *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001. 5.2 Descriptive statistics and correlation matrix Table 3 reports the descriptive statistical results of the variables. Table 3 Descriptive statistics Variables Mean Standard deviation Maximum Minimum Balance dimension 4.53 0.327 5.0 2.6 Combined dimension 31.71 6.441 47.6 7.5 Improvisational ability 5.71 0.691 7.0 2.8 Innovation performance 0.00 0.656 1.93 -1.5 Note: To eliminate the impact of dimensions, innovation performance is measured in standardized values. Table 4 reports the results of the correlation analysis. International ambidexterity (balance dimension: β = 0.584, p < 0.001, combined dimension: β = 0.716, p < 0.001), and Improvisational ability ( β = 0.288, p < 0.001) showed a significant positive correlation with innovation performance. Table 4 Results of correlation analysis Variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 Balance dimension 1 2 Combined dimension 0.584*** 1 3 Improvisational ability 0.035 0.195*** 1 4 Innovation performance 0.532*** 0.716*** 0.288*** 1 5 Scale 0.165*** 0.232*** 0.118*** 0.290*** 1 6 Age 0.078 0.163** 0.097** 0.126*** 0.216*** 1 7 Nature of ownership -0.023 -0.074 -0.024 -0.054 -0.017 -0.068 1 8 Last Year's Sales Revenue 0.141*** 0.213** 0.134*** 0.219*** 0.548*** 0.282*** -0.051 1 Note: Significance level: *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001. 5.3 Hypothesis test SPSS 27.0 was used for mathematical statistical analysis. We tested the direct impact of international ambidexterity on innovation performance and the moderating effect of improvisation through multiple linear regression, and the results are shown in Table 5 . Hypothesis H1a and hypothesis H1b indicate that the balanced and combined dimensions of international ambidexterity have a positive impact on innovation performance. The results of models 2 and 3 show that the regression coefficients of balance dimension and combined dimension are positive and significant (balance dimension: β = 0.493, P < 0.001; combined dimension: β = 0.686, P < 0.001). Therefore, the research results are supportive of hypothesis H1a and H1b. Hypothesis H2 explains the positive influence of improvisational ability on innovation performance. The regression coefficient of improvisational ability in Model 4 is significantly positive ( β = 0.251, P < 0.001), so H2 is assumed to be acceptable. In addition, hypothesis H3a and Hypothesis H3b suggest that improvisational ability plays a moderating role between international ambidexterity and innovation. The results of Model 5 and Model 6 show that the regression coefficients of the two dimensions of international ambidexterity and the interaction term of improvisational ability are both significant and positive (interaction term of Model 5: β = 0.308, P < 0.001; interaction term of Model 6: β = 0.294, P < 0.001). Therefore, hypotheses H3a and H3b pass the empirical test. Table 5 Results of regression analysis Variables Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4 Model 5 Model 6 Nature of Business Ownership -0.042 -0.035 -0.002 -0.039 -0.021 0.012 Last Year's Sales Revenue 0.071 0.04 0.006 0.05 0.03 -0.005 Enterprise Scale 0.239*** 0.179*** 0.131*** 0.225*** 0.136*** 0.123*** Enterprise Age 0.051 0.035 -0.016 0.036 0.018 -0.01 Balance dimension 0.493*** 0.448*** Combined dimension 0.686*** 0.522*** Improvisational ability 0.251*** 0.211*** 0.143*** Balance dimension*Improvisational ability 0.308*** Combined dimension*Improvisational ability 0.294*** R2 (adj) 0.088 0.324 0.525 0.148 0.473 0.611 Max VIF 1.490 1.494 1.500 1.497 1.502 1.505 F 16.07 60.885 139.018 22.768 65.546 141.206 Note: Significance level: *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001. 5.4 Robustness test In order to test the reliability of the results, the method of sample reduction and grouping test was used to conduct regression analysis again. First, China's state-owned enterprises have more stringent regulations and planning than their private counterparts, so they may be less improvisational for these reasons. Therefore, we excluded all state-owned enterprises in the sample and conducted regression analysis on the remaining samples of non-state-owned enterprises. The results are shown in Table 6 . Table 6 Robustness test results (Reduced sample, n = 573) Variables Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4 Model 5 Model 6 Last Year's Sales Revenue 0.052 0.019 -0.016 0.032 0.011 -0.021 Enterprise Scale 0.226*** 0.163*** 0.123*** 0.212*** 0.129** 0.114*** Enterprise Age 0.063 0.054 0.002 0.047 0.03 0.005 Balance dimension 0.508*** 0.446*** Combined dimension 0.693*** 0.529*** Improvisational ability 0.254*** 0.210*** 0.123*** Balance dimension*Improvisational ability 0.296*** Combined dimension*Improvisational ability 0.298*** R2 (adj) 0.074 0.324 0.524 0.136 0.463 0.609 Max VIF 1.498 1.503 1.508 1.505 1.510 1.512 F 16.192 69.683 158.312 23.479 83.350 149.526 Note: Significance level: *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001. In addition, due to the large differences in knowledge intensity and technology intensity in different industries, the internationalization strategy and life cycle of enterprises are also different. As a result, ambidextrous international strategies may perform differently in terms of innovation. The intensity of market competition in different industries may also be different, and improvisation behavior and improvisation ability may have different performances in different industries. In order to further test whether the impact of internationalization duality on enterprise innovation performance will be significantly different due to different industry types of enterprises, and to test the reliability of previous analysis results, this study divides the samples into manufacturing and non-manufacturing groups according to the industry types of enterprises, and conducts tests in different groups. The test results are shown in Table 7 and Table 8 . Table 7 Group test results (manufacturing enterprises, n = 260) Variables Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4 Model 5 Model 6 Nature of Business Ownership -0.064 -0.041 -0.021 -0.062 -0.037 -0.013 Last Year's Sales Revenue -0.03 -0.04 -0.036 -0.047 -0.046 -0.037 Enterprise Scale 0.300*** 0.258*** 0.198*** 0.280*** 0.217*** 0.174*** Enterprise Age -0.014 -0.045 -0.079 -0.028 -0.055 -0.077 Balance dimension 0.444*** 0.457*** Combined dimension 0.667*** 0.515*** Improvisational ability 0.261*** 0.177*** 0.134*** Balance dimension*Improvisational ability 0.342*** Combined dimension*Improvisational ability 0.303*** R2 (adj) 0.073 0.265 0.499 0.137 0.445 0.598 Max VIF 1.396 1.396 1.396 1.400 1.401 1.402 F 6.093 19.648 52.695 9.244 30.632 56.010 Note: Significance level: *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001. Table 8 Group test results (non-manufacturing enterprises, n = 366) Variables Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4 Model 5 Model 6 Nature of Business Ownership -0.042 -0.045 0.005 -0.039 -0.021 0.023 Last Year's Sales Revenue 0.159* 0.115* 0.044 0.133* 0.099* 0.026 Enterprise Scale 0.190* 0.117* 0.083 0.181* 0.078 0.088 Enterprise Age 0.097 0.093* 0.027 0.081 0.067 0.034 Balance dimension 0.529*** 0.448*** Combined dimension 0.701*** 0.528*** Improvisational ability 0.234*** 0.222*** 0.142*** Balance dimension*Improvisational ability 0.291*** Combined dimension*Improvisational ability 0.289*** R2 (adj) 0.113 0.382 0.555 0.164 0.503 0.630 Max VIF 1.573 1.580 1.603 1.586 1.593 1.611 F 12.592 46.186 92.106 15.360 53.875 89.781 Note: Significance level: *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001. It can be seen from the robustness results above that despite the sample reduction or grouping, the difference between the results of the benchmark test and the results of the robustness test is small, and the conclusion is reliable. 6 Discussion, implication and limitations 6.1 Theoretical implication The findings of this paper provide new insights into the role of ambidexterity and improvisational ability in the innovation of transnational corporations, and embody theoretical value in three aspects. First, based on an ambidexterity perspective, this study proposes that ambidextrous internationalization strategy is still an effective strategy for multinational enterprises to effectively cope with the current international environment where transnational management challenges such as tougher nationalism and extreme supply chain optimization are frequent (Chetty, Gabrielsson & Gabrielsson, 2024 ). It enriches the existing research on the internationalization strategy of transnational corporations. The rapid reshaping of the global order is placing new demands on international business research and management practices, and innovation networks will require new structures and configurations (Petricevic & Teece,2019). Building on existing research on the theory of ambidexterity, this study examines the positive effects of ambidextrous internationalization strategies in effectively responding to volatile business environments and enabling innovation, and responds to the current theoretical dialogue on how multinational corporations can adjust their international operations and strategies to respond to greater turbulence in the global economy (Silvers, 2020 ). Secondly, this paper introduces improvisational ability as a moderating variable, and expands the research literature on the boundary conditions for ambidexterity to promote innovation. This study integrates a large amount of literature on the competitive advantage and innovation of multinational corporations and presents a comprehensive theoretical framework. In this framework, we examine how the interaction between improvisational ability and ambidextrous internationalization strategies can play a positive role in improving innovation performance. This has important theoretical significance for the study of situational factors in the relationship between ambidexterity and innovation performance. Provides new insights into how emerging market multinationals such as China can improve innovation performance and gain competitive advantage through international ambidexterity (Khan, Amankwah-Amoah, Lew, Puthusserry, & Czinkota, 2022 ). Finally, this study examines the positive impact of improvisational ability on innovation performance, expands the use of improvisation in international business research, and complements the existing innovation literature. From an organizational learning perspective (Miner, Bassof, & Moorman, 2001 ), this study discusses and verifies the role of improvisational ability in multinationals' ability to quickly respond to volatile environments and unexpected events and achieve innovation. Most of the past improvisation literature focused on the improvisation of start-ups, focusing on the triggers of improvisation, but little was known about how companies benefit from improvisation (Liu et al.,2018). Taking transnational corporations as the research object, this study examines the important role of improvisational ability in transnational management of large international corporations, and supplements and improves the existing improvisation literature. 6.2 Managerial implication First, the empirical findings of this study have clear practical significance for multinational enterprise managers. Innovation and ambidexterity have been long-standing problems in international business management (Liu, Collinson, Cooper, & Baglieri, 2021 ). We believe that multinational enterprises should develop third-order dynamic internationalization capabilities (international ambidexterity) in the process of internationalization (Prange & Verdier, 2011 ). Although there may be challenges in implementing ambidexterity in practice (Hsu, Lien, & Chen, 2013 ), multinational corporations should still balance their exploratory and exploitative activities in the internationalization process, which is essential for successful internationalization as well as firm innovation. When resources are limited, managers can choose exploration or exploitation according to the relative gap between actual performance and target performance, so as to establish a balanced resource allocation mechanism between the two (Fu, Liao, Liu, & Lu, 2021 ). Second, this research provides useful insights into how managers can adapt their operational strategies to quickly respond to a complex and volatile international business environment. Transnational management after the COVID-19 pandemic will need to effectively face additional external shocks, including geopolitical tensions, supply chain shortages, and climate change (Chetty, Gabrielsson, & Gabrielsson,2024). But the backdrop of a turbulent business environment also provides the conditions for multinationals to develop the ability to improvise, learn from unconscious experiences, and achieve innovation (Chetty, Gabrielsson, & Gabrielsson,2024). Therefore, this study puts forward two practical suggestions. From the perspective of planning, multinational companies should realize that ambidextrous internationalization strategy is a key strategy to improve innovation performance in an uncertain competitive environment. From a quick response perspective, managers must also realize that improvisation gives the company the opportunity to respond quickly to temporary events and seize fleeting opportunities. Finally, this study encourages managers to learn quickly from improvisation and improve their improvisation ability, so as to improve their innovation ability and final innovation performance. At present, the intensity of competition has been greatly intensified, and the time pressure has gradually increased. Enterprises often quickly create new products and new processes through improvisation (Seo et al., 2017 , Adomako et al., 2018 .). Improvisation is inevitable (Liu et al., 2018 ). Past research has generally found that improvisation has a mixed effect on innovation (Vera and Crossan,2005). On the one hand, scholars of the "reactive" view believe that in the face of unexpected shocks, the organization's previously thorough plans will become irrelevant, and improvisation may reduce the effectiveness of the product. On the contrary, scholars of "initiative" logic believe that improvisation means that managers can continuously and creatively adapt to changes and quickly introduce new products and services (Liu et al., 2018 ). This study believes that the effect of improvisation on innovation performance is influenced by many factors, such as organizational learning ability, corporate resource factors and structural factors (Liu et al., 2018 ). Resource slack, the inventory of excess resources available to firms, is thought to be conducive to innovation (Damanpour, 1991 ). Previous literature has shown that idle resources are critical in transforming unexpected activities into innovations (Saemundsson and Candi, 2017 ). Therefore, if an enterprise expects to promote innovation through improvisation skills, it may first need to investigate the resource reserve of the enterprise in order to exert the positive effect of improvisation. 6.3 Limitation and future research First of all, although the research sample includes multinational corporations of different industries and sizes with subsidiaries all over the world, these multinational corporations are all based in China, which limits the universal applicability of the research conclusions to some extent. We believe that including large samples from different home countries will provide more interesting conclusions. In addition, the multinational companies in the research samples come from different industries, so this study did not classify the samples and conduct a more detailed study. In fact, due to the differences in knowledge intensity and competition intensity, the internationalization strategy and improvisation strategy of multinational companies in different industries may be different. This could be an opportunity for further research. Declarations Informed consent The work has not been considered to publish elsewhere, in whole or in part. All authors have approved to this submission to your esteemed journal. This consent procedure was approved by the Ethics Committee of Anhui university business school on June 2, 2024. Its publication is also approved tacitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out. We agree that if accepted, the paper will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the Publisher. Ethical approval All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional ethics committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Ethical approval for the study was granted by the Ethics Committee of Anhui University business school on June 2, 2024. The approval covered the survey of Anhui University business school and its associations with research contents. Funding: This research was supported by the National Social Science Foundation Project of China (Grant No. 23BGL127). This work was supported the foundation of Anhui Provincial Department of Education [grant number 2022AH050021]. Declarations of Interest: there is no competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. References Adomako S, Opoku RA, & Frimpong, K. 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Wang C, Piperopoulos P, Chen S, Ming AAK, Herbert K. (2022) Outward fdi and innovation performance of Chinese firms: why can home-grown political ties be a liability? Journal of World Business . 57(3). doi: 10.1016/j.jwb.2021.101306. Weick KE. (1993) The collapse of sensemaking in organizations: The Mann Gulch disaster. Administrative Science Quarterly . 38(4): 628-652. Wu JN, Arndt F, Ma H, Hughes P, Tang S. (2023) Learning from improvisation in New Ventures. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge . 8(2): 100346. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jik.2023.100346. Wu J, Wood G, Chen XY, Meyer M, Liu ZY. (2019) Strategic ambidexterity and innovation in Chinese multinational vs. indigenous firms: the role of managerial capability. International Business Review . 29(6): 101652. doi: 10.1016/j.ibusrev.2019.101652. Xie ZZ, Li JT. (2017) Exporting and innovating among emerging market firms: The moderating role of institutional development. 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More and more countries have adopted policies favoring domestic companies and increased the screening and examination of foreign companies, which has increased the pressure on multinational companies to operate and manage in host countries. In addition, issues such as the energy crisis and climate change on a global scale, stronger national protectionism and supply chain shortages have put multinational enterprises (MNEs) under increasing pressure to globalized or cross-border licensing (Chetty, Gabrielsson \u0026amp; Gabrielsson, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR9\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). As a result, some studies have pointed out that the strategy and management of multinational corporations will fundamentally change. Risk aversion, nationalism and protectionism will become more pronounced.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHowever, we agree with Contractor (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR14\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e) that the basic principles of globalization are still sound, and the world after the Covid-19 pandemic will still maintain the trend of globalization. Because of fragmentation and inequality, MNEs will still be able to create opportunities for aggregation and arbitrage (Ghemawat, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR28\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2007\u003c/span\u003e). As an international bridge, the multinational corporation not only benefits traders and their alliances, but also enables consumers in both home and host countries to enjoy goods and services with lower prices and better quality (Contractor, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR14\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e). Because of the improvement of production methods and organizational structure due to transnational management, competition will intensify (Contractor, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR14\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e). Although the globalization trajectory of the world economy has become increasingly uncertain, and multinational companies are faced with the task of re-examining their \"global\" value chains, re-evaluating internationalization strategies and innovation (Petricevic \u0026amp; Teece, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR58\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e), the globalization trend of the world economy is still moving forward after the pandemic. The key is that, given the existing problems of over-dependence on global value chains, protectionism and risk aversion, how can multinational companies adjust their international operating strategies to effectively cope with these changes?\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLuo and Rui (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR45\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2009\u003c/span\u003e) proposed an ambidexterity perspective and argued that while all companies need and maintain a certain degree of ambidexterity, Emerging market multinational enterprises (EM MNEs) have the stronger motivation and the ability to build and leverage such ambidexterity to offset the late-mover disadvantages. Prange and Verdier (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR62\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2011\u003c/span\u003e) also emphasize ambidexterity in the internationalization process. They believe that continuous interaction between various internationalization processes (exploration and exploitation) can promote the survival and growth of multinational enterprises, and formally propose the concept of \"international ambidexterity\". Obviously, ambidexterity has become an important perspective to study the internationalization and innovation performance of EM MNEs. However, the existing research does not seem to have an in-depth discussion on whether and how international ambidexterity promotes innovation performance (Khan, Amankwah-Amoah, Lew, Puthusserry, \u0026amp; Czinkota, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR38\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e). Although the mainstream view believes that international ambidexterity has a positive impact on innovation performance, the existing researches always focus on testing this positive effect and we still lack the theoretical framework and empirical data on the process mechanism of international ambidexterity on innovation performance (Hu, Dou, You, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR37\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e; Hsu, Lien, Chen, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR34\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e). This limits the utilization of the positive effects of ambidexterity strategy by multinational enterprises.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe international business literature of the past has fully emphasized the importance of innovation to enhance long-term competitive advantage, but today's competitive model may be changing (Cao, Ma, Ning, Sun, 2023). The post-COVID-19 international business environment is characterized by significant uncertainty and time pressures, and the uncertainty and dynamics of international markets have greatly increased (Hilmersson, Johanson, Papaioannou, \u0026amp; Lundberg, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR33\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e). Long-term competitive advantages may no longer exist, and multinational companies must quickly adjust their international operations and strategies to cope with uncertain events and manage risks, and improve the efficiency of innovation, or they are likely to be completely overwhelmed in the fierce competition and change (Prashantham \u0026amp; Floyd, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR63\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e). Only in this way can it be possible to obtain many short-term or even instantaneous competitive advantages, and then pursue the steady development on this basis. In fact, in order to achieve the goal of instantaneous competition, improvisation has also existed in multinational corporations.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe literature holds that improvisation is an important strategy for rapid response to the environment (Wu et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR78\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e), which has been introduced from opera and other artistic fields to the entrepreneurial field and has been well developed (Hmieleski, Corbett, \u0026amp; Baron, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR32\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e). Studies have shown that faced with such a complex international environment, it is necessary for multinational companies to adopt improvisation techniques and shorten the time interval between planning and execution to speed up the response to external changes (Hilmersson, Johanson, Papaioannou, \u0026amp; Lundberg, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR33\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e). To this end, MNEs need to develop improvisation and accelerate the learning process (2024). However, there are few researches on the improvisation ability in all levels of innovation of multinational corporations. In fact, leaders of multinational companies may have already adopted actions to cultivate organizational improvisation, but the impact of such strategic behavior on corporate performance, especially innovation, has not been identified. Previous literature has reached a consensus that improvisation in itself is not good or bad. We need to further understand whether improvisation affects the performance of international operations and the performance of innovation. Does improvisation make an ambidextrous international strategy more effective?\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe purpose of this study is to identify whether the ambidextrous internationalization strategy of a multinational corporation contributes to more innovation, and we also consider the moderating effect of improvisational ability on the relationship between the two. This article will make contributions in the following aspects. First, this study identifies the characteristics of the ambidextrous internationalization strategy of Chinese multinational corporations, and discusses the positive effects of this strategy in responding to changes in the external environment and improving innovation performance. Thus, we broaden the scope of application of ambidexterity theory in the field of innovation management. Secondly, this study extends the improvisation research in the field of art to the field of innovation research, and discusses the impact of the improvisation ability of multinational corporations on the implementation of ambidextrous internationalization strategy. It not only expands the boundaries of organizational improvisation research, but also complements innovative research in the field of international business.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe rest of the study is organized as follows. Section \u003cspan refid=\"Sec2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e is a detailed review of the relevant literature. Section \u003cspan refid=\"Sec5\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e summarizes the relevant theoretical basis and puts forward the research hypothesis. Section \u003cspan refid=\"Sec9\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e4\u003c/span\u003e describes data sources and estimation methods. Section \u003cspan refid=\"Sec13\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e5\u003c/span\u003e presents the results of the empirical study and our discussion of the results. Finally, we conclude this paper by presenting the conclusions of this study and some possible shortcomings in Section \u003cspan refid=\"Sec18\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e6\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"2 Literature review","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec3\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e2.1 Exploitative internationalization, explorative internationalization and international ambidexterity\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe research on internationalization was first carried out around multinational enterprises in developed countries (such as North America, Europe, and Japan). The traditional international business theory emphasizes the exploitation orientation of internationalization (Baker \u0026amp; Sinkula, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR4\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1999\u003c/span\u003e; Albertoni, Elia, \u0026amp; Piscitello, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR2\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e). The literature argues that enterprises need to accumulate certain advantages in technical strength, marketing channels, human resources, and other aspects before international expansion, to make use of existing advantages (Rugman, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR65\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1978\u003c/span\u003e; Dunning, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR21\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1981\u003c/span\u003e; Buckley, Clegg, Cross, Liu, Voss, \u0026amp; Zheng, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR6\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2007\u003c/span\u003e). However, the rapid rise of EM MNEs has led to some limitations of the traditional internationalization theory. For example, EM MNEs from developing countries do not have ownership advantages (Makino, Lau, \u0026amp; Yeh, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR49\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2002\u003c/span\u003e), but still successfully expand internationally in both developing and developed countries (Verbeke, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR75\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2008\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eContrary to traditional theoretical assumptions, EM MNEs do not have advantages in terms of technology and resources, but they tend to participate in international operations in high-commitment ways such as cross-border mergers and acquisitions. Researchers have tried to explain this unique international phenomenon from multiple theoretical perspectives. For example, Mathews (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR51\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2002\u003c/span\u003e) proposed the \"LLL\" theory (link-age, leverage, learning), and Luo and Tung (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR46\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2007\u003c/span\u003e) proposed the famous springboard theory to explain that multinational enterprises regard the international market as a springboard to make up for competitive advantages. Researchers believe that multinational enterprises acquire innovative knowledge and resources through \"exploration\" in the international market, to make up for their competitive advantages and achieve technological catch-up (Elia, Kafouros, \u0026amp; Buckley, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR23\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e; Xie \u0026amp; Li, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR80\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e). Existing research provides a good basis for understanding the motivations of multinationals in emerging markets, but does not provide more in-depth insights into how to successfully improve innovation performance through internationalization.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eStudies on ambidexterity provide a valuable perspective to explain the differences in the internationalization performance of multinational enterprises. Since multinational enterprises operate in the complex and uncertain international market, and many enterprises are faced with the \"productivity dilemma\" caused by limited resources (Utterback \u0026amp; Abernathy, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR72\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1975\u003c/span\u003e; Luo, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR44\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2002\u003c/span\u003e), it is a common difficulty for all multinational enterprises to deal with the tension between survival and growth (Duncan, 1976). Luo and Rui (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR45\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2009\u003c/span\u003e) proposed an ambidexterity perspective on the international expansion of EM MNEs, and deconstructed ambidexterity into \"co-evolution, co-competence, co-opetition, co-orientation\". Prange and Verdier (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR62\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2011\u003c/span\u003e) proposed the concept of \"international ambidexterity\" when they analyzed the difference between \"growth\" and \"survival\" in international performance. Prange and Verdier (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR62\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2011\u003c/span\u003e) explained \"international ambidexterity\" as \"third-order dynamic internationalization capabilities\". They believe that only sustained interaction between diverse processes of internationalization can simultaneously achieve international growth and survival. The challenge for companies is to deal with the paradox of ambidexterity and ease the tension between exploratory and exploratory activities in order to achieve superior short and long-term performance (Berraies, Hamza, \u0026amp; Chtioui, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR5\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e). However, the application of ambidexterity theory in the field of internationalization is still in the stage of logical reasoning, and the empirical evidence on the relationship between international ambidexterity and innovation performance is still lacking (Clauss, Kraus, Kallinger, Bican, Brem, \u0026amp; Kailer, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR13\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e). Although studies on international business actively emphasize the importance of ambidextrous strategy and scholars have preliminarily tested the impact of international ambidexterity on innovation performance (Prange \u0026amp; Verdier, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR62\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2011\u003c/span\u003e; Khan, Amankwah-Amoah, Lew, Puthusserry, \u0026amp; Czinkota, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR38\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e), it is still unclear whether the relationship between the two is direct or indirect. In fact, this lack of research limits the potential of ambidextrous strategies to improve innovation performance.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec4\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e2.2 Improvisation and Improvisational ability\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt present, how enterprises cope with environmental uncertainty has received extensive attention from scholars, and improvisation is considered to be an effective way for enterprises to cope with rapid changes and obtain unexpected opportunities (Hu et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR36\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e). The study of improvisation was initially focused on the field of art (drama, music, dance, etc.), which refers to the performer's improvisation from the original script or script during the performance (Ciuchta et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR12\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e). This kind of performance is mostly achieved by the performer in some unexpected situations according to the current reality, which is some unplanned behavior. Later, the study of improvisation gradually expanded to medical care (Embrey et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR24\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1996\u003c/span\u003e), education (Baker et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR3\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2003\u003c/span\u003e) and disaster relief (Mendonca, Beroggi \u0026amp; Wallace,2001). From the perspective of time process, in the 1960s, organization researchers had a preliminary understanding of improvisation, but at that time, most of them regarded improvisation in organizations as a manifestation of dysfunction and did not pay enough attention to it. Until the 1990s, under the appeal and advocacy of a group of scholars such as Weick (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR77\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1993\u003c/span\u003e), scholars in the field of organizational management began to pay more attention to the role of improvisation in organizational behavior. Since then, organizational improvisation has gradually developed into a new research field in organizational theory.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eResearch on organizational improvisation in different research contexts has confirmed that improvisation is not only a universal organizational behavior, but also has an important impact on the survival and development of organizations (Weick, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR77\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1993\u003c/span\u003e; Moorman \u0026amp; Miner, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR55\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1998\u003c/span\u003e). The influence of organizational improvisation is not always positive. Existing studies have shown the positive and negative results of organizational improvisation under different factors. Among the existing research results, the positive effects mainly include that organizational improvisation can maintain organizational flexibility (Samra et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR67\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2008\u003c/span\u003e), promote organizational change (Orlikowski, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR56\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1996\u003c/span\u003e), and promote new product development and innovation (Eisenhardt,1995). There are also some studies that show that improvisation can enhance members' emotions. On the contrary, the negative effects are reflected in the possibility of leading to opportunity traps, over-dependence, and learning bias (Cunha et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR18\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1999\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe current research on improvisation and improvisation in organizations is not in-depth in business research journals, and we only see a few research results. Davis, Eisenhardt and Bingham (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR20\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2009\u003c/span\u003e) studied the impromptu behavior of new enterprises when they enter the foreign market and found that impromptu choice of opportunities did not bring the success of the company, because at this time the company may pursue the current perceived opportunities rather than long-term profits. Evers and O 'Gorman (2011) observed that new enterprises adopt improvisational strategies in the early stage of internationalization, and they quickly identify foreign market opportunities to achieve successful entry. Vera et al. (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR74\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e) put forward the concept of improvisation in response to the research of R\u0026amp;D teams. They believe that improvisation can be regarded as a kind of ability, which is crucial to the survival of entrepreneurial teams. In a recent study, Chetty, Gabrielsson \u0026amp; Gabrielsson (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR9\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e) studied companies in New Zealand and Finland to reveal how companies develop improvisational skills to gain international business knowledge. Although the role of improvisation in a rapidly changing environment has attracted increasing academic attention, little is known about the conditions under which businesses benefit from improvisation (Liu et al.,2018).\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"3 Theoretical development and Hypotheses","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec6\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e3.1 The impact of international ambidexterity on innovation performance\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe simultaneous pursuit of survival and growth is a common problem faced by all multinational enterprises, because ambidexterity essentially means two opposing organizational needs (Liu, Collinson, Cooper, \u0026amp; Baglieri, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR42\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e). From the perspective of resource allocation, these are two distinct and contradictory goals (Prange \u0026amp; Verdier, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR62\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2011\u003c/span\u003e). Growth (exploration) usually requires a huge investment, while survival (exploitation) tends to accumulate income through the existing base (Cho \u0026amp; Pucik, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR10\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2005\u003c/span\u003e). Studies show that the internationalization process of enterprises requires different dynamic capabilities to seize and continuously explore foreign markets (Prange \u0026amp; Verdier, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR62\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2011\u003c/span\u003e). As one of the goals of internationalization for many enterprises, innovation depends on good internationalization performance to accumulate knowledge and improve innovation performance. Therefore, the balance between exploration and exploitation of third-order dynamic internationalization capability is the key to achieving innovation in the process of internationalization.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eH1.\u003c/b\u003e International ambidexterity actively promotes the innovation performance of multinational corporations.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eReferring to the definition of the balance dimension of organizational ambidexterity (Cao, Gedajlovic, \u0026amp; Zhang, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR8\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2009\u003c/span\u003e), we believe that the balance dimension of international ambidexterity refers to the relative balance of exploratory and exploitative activities in scale achieved through coordination mechanism.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe balance dimension of international ambidexterity requires multinational corporations to simultaneously implement exploratory and exploitative internationalization without preference (Wu \u0026amp; Chen, 2018), which means that multinational corporations will allocate resources evenly between exploration and exploitation (Wu, Wood, Chen, Meyer, \u0026amp; Liu, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR79\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e). Thus, multinational enterprises can gain different benefits from conducting exploratory and exploitative activities simultaneously and avoid the disadvantages of a single internationalization process (Hsu, Lien, \u0026amp; Chen, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR34\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e). Exploitative internationalization will ensure that multinationals can quickly adapt and leverage existing strengths in foreign markets where institutions, cultures, and market requirements are different from those of their home countries (Prange \u0026amp; Verdier, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR62\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2011\u003c/span\u003e; Tian, Deng, Zhang \u0026amp; Salmador, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR71\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e). Exploratory internationalization usually focuses on extensive exploration and learning in the host country market, helping multinational enterprises acquire new technologies and human resources related to innovation, and mastering cutting-edge information of industry development (Makino, Lau, \u0026amp; Yeh, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR49\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2002\u003c/span\u003e; Thite, Wilkinsonb, Budhwar, \u0026amp; Mathews, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR70\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e). In addition, if enterprises overemphasize the utilization of existing capabilities and advantages while neglecting the cultivation of new capabilities and exploration of new knowledge, it may lead to \"capability trap\" (He \u0026amp; Wong, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR31\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2004\u003c/span\u003e). Similarly, a firm's aggressive commitment to exploration is likely to slow down the rate of further improvement of existing capabilities (March, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR50\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1991\u003c/span\u003e) and entails the risk of continuing to invest without a return. Based on the above analysis, we propose the following hypothesis:\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eH1a.\u003c/b\u003e The balance dimension of international ambidexterity positively promotes the innovation performance of multinational corporations.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eReferring to the definition of the combined dimension of organizational ambidexterity, we argue that the combined dimension of international ambidexterity refers to the size of the combination of exploration and exploitation in the degree of execution when both are implemented simultaneously.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlthough previous studies have argued that exploration and exploitation are committed to completely different goals and have completely different requirements for organizational structure and capabilities, the joint dimension of international ambidexterity emphasizes that exploration and exploitation are not completely competitive and opposite (Cao, Gedajlovic, \u0026amp; Zhang, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR8\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2009\u003c/span\u003e). Rather, they are different but complementary options for shaping, utilizing, and building capabilities and competitive advantages (He \u0026amp; Wong, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR31\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2004\u003c/span\u003e; Gupta, Smith, \u0026amp; Shalley, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR29\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2006\u003c/span\u003e). More specifically, exploitation helps transnational enterprises to leverage existing resource advantages and make them continuously add value (Ciasullo, Montera, Cucari, \u0026amp; Polese, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR11\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e). Exploration seeks to experiment with new activities, processes, and relationships, thereby developing new capabilities and accumulating new resources (Levinthal \u0026amp; March, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR39\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1993\u003c/span\u003e). Besides, through high-quality exploitative activities, the organization fully understands the existing capabilities and is fully familiar with the organizational process, which is conducive to improving the enterprise's ability to identify and absorb external knowledge and resources, which is closely related to organizational renewal and the development of new products and technologies (Zahra \u0026amp; George \u003cspan citationid=\"CR82\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2002\u003c/span\u003e). The process of exploration also promotes the process of exploitation. As enterprises internalize more external knowledge and resources through exploration, their exploitation will be carried out in a larger capacity pool, and the scale of exploitation of efficient routines and processes will increase accordingly (Cao, Gedajlovic, \u0026amp; Zhang, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR8\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2009\u003c/span\u003e). Therefore, this article assumes:\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eH1b.\u003c/b\u003e The combined dimension of international ambidexterity positively promotes the innovation performance of multinational corporations.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec7\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e3.2 The positive effect of improvisation on innovation\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe rapid development of digital technology has intensified the uncertainty of the business environment, and the importance of improvisational behavior in today's changeable international competitive environment has received increasing attention (Hughes, Morgan, Hodgkinson, Kouropalatis \u0026amp; Lindgreen, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR35\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e). This study focuses on the positive effects of improvisation on organizational innovation performance. Research has shown that improvisation has the potential to promote organizational learning (Ciuchta et al, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR12\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e), thus helping organizations to further enrich their capabilities and achieve innovation. Multinational companies may need to deal more frequently and quickly with unusual needs and requirements from customers, suppliers or governments, as well as unexpected events. The literature describes a process of learning from improvisation that involves selectively retaining lessons learned from improvisation events and analysing them over a longer period of time, where improvisation creates the conditions for learning (Prashantham \u0026amp; Floyd, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR63\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e). Companies with superior improvisation skills are able to learn from improvisation and form new routines that can serve as drivers of organizational performance (Wu et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR78\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e). Organizations with strong improvisation allow members the freedom to deviate from established norms, generate innovation, and then give feedback to the organization through a broader learning process (Crossan, Lane, \u0026amp; White, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR15\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1999\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn addition, many studies have shown that organizational improvisation may lead to unexpected discoveries (2021). Rond (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR64\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2014\u003c/span\u003e) argues that companies that allow improvisation promote unplanned interactions and are prepared for unexpected discoveries. Several studies have shown that in a relaxed or informal work environment where ideas and information flow freely, interactions among members can easily lead to unexpected discoveries and gains (Cunha et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR17\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2010\u003c/span\u003e), which provides the conditions for innovation. Therefore, we assume that:\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eH2.\u003c/b\u003e Improvisational ability has a positive impact on innovation performance.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec8\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e3.3 Improvisational ability and its moderating effect\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eWe inherited the idea of Yeniarasa et al (2021), which defined improvisation asa way to develop, the ability to deal with emergent problems and unexpected opportunities spontaneously and quickly (Vera, Nemanich, V\u0026acute;elez-Castrillon \u0026amp; Werner, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR74\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e). In the new context, the validity of existing organizational theories characterized by order and control is challenged. Improvisational strategy provides the possibility to deal with unexpected events effectively and try to solve problems in novel ways. Improvisation often implies a departure from previous conventions and technical know-how to ensure novelty and effectiveness (Parida et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR57\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e). New ideas/new processes/new products or services generated through improvisation may form new organizational practices or promote the development of new capabilities (Parida et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR57\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e; Prashantham \u0026amp; Floyd, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR63\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e), such as innovation capability (Valaei et al., 2017). These capabilities will provide conditions for enterprises to effectively respond to emergencies and risks and promote continuous innovation.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOur dynamic improvisation capabilities in entering foreign markets support the rapid development of experience and knowledge, which is an important learning mechanism for multinational companies (Chetty, Gabrielsson \u0026amp; Gabrielsson, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR9\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). Lack of knowledge can be an important challenge for companies to internationalize. If improvisation can be developed, international companies can accelerate the acquisition of international business knowledge or quickly learn some unexpected experiences to overcome this barrier (Chetty, Gabrielsson \u0026amp; Gabrielsson, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR9\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). In addition, improvisation has been found to be positively correlated with client capital, strategic performance, and financial performance (Yeniaras et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR81\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e). An international company may implement a local area network based on the development of improvisation capabilities, thus enabling the company to enter foreign markets smoothly and rapidly accumulate international business knowledge (Chetty, Gabrielsson \u0026amp; Gabrielsson, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR9\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). Organizational improvisation enables managers to quickly and creatively adapt to changes in the external environment and make adjustments to products and services to achieve stable operation in turbulent times (Liu et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR41\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e). Studies have shown that improvisation can play a key role in enterprise innovation when the external environment is highly uncertain (Vera and Crossan,2005). If an enterprise has the ability to learn from improvisation, it is more likely to improve its innovation ability through improvisation, thus achieving better innovation performance (Liu et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR41\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eH3a.\u003c/b\u003e Improvisational ability positively moderates the relationship between the balance dimension of international ambidexterity and innovation performance.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eH3b.\u003c/b\u003e Improvisational ability positively moderates the relationship between the combined dimension of international ambidexterity and innovation performance.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThrough the above analysis, we construct the conceptual framework of this paper (shown in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"4 Methodology","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec10\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e4.1 Sample and Data source\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis study collected data by questionnaire survey. The respondents were mainly middle and senior managers of multinationals. The items in the questionnaire are designed concerning classic questionnaires widely used in the international business and innovation literature. Before determining the final version of the questionnaire, we invited 50 respondents to take a preliminary survey on the draft questionnaire. Based on the survey feedback, the researchers modified items in the questionnaire that were difficult to understand or did not fit the Chinese context, with the aim of improving the accuracy and comprehensibility of the tool.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo test the hypothesis, we take samples from Chinese multinational enterprises. Since the economic reform in 1978, China has successively implemented the \"Bring In\" and \"Go Global\" strategies, which are considered to be the key for China's economic sectors to upgrade the innovation value chain (Lyles, Tsang, Li, Hong, Cooke, \u0026amp; Lu, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR47\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e). These policies have led to massive investment flows into China and helped Chinese enterprises successfully internationalize into both emerging market economies and developed economies (Verbeke, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR75\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2008\u003c/span\u003e), thus having a significant impact on both China and the host countries of outbound investment (Wang, Piperopoulos, Chen, Ming, \u0026amp; Herbert, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR76\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e). China has become one of the most suitable backgrounds for studying outbound investment and domestic innovation performance (Li, Strange, Ning, \u0026amp; Sutherland, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR40\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e). As the scope has been limited to China, three different methods were adopted in this study to issue questionnaires to expand the diversity of sample sources. First of all, 800 questionnaires were distributed to multinational enterprises across the country through the professional website \"Questionnaire Star\", and 556 responses were received. Second, because the researchers were from different universities, we asked MBA students from those schools to take the test. 200 questionnaires were distributed on-site, and 147 questionnaires were collected. Finally, 100 questionnaires were distributed to middle and senior managers of multinational companies through the network of friends and relatives, and 52 questionnaires were recovered. The researchers screened out invalid questionnaires based on the following criteria: (1) blank answer sheets for all or part of the questions; (2) most of the answers were the same as in the other questionnaire; (3) invalid samples with the same answers to 95% or more questions in the questionnaire. After eliminating 129 invalid samples, 626 valid samples were retained, and the effective response rate was 56.91%. Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e shows the sample structure of this study.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab1\" border=\"1\"\u003e\u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 1\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eSample structure (n\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;626)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/caption\u003e\u003ccolgroup cols=\"3\"\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eIndustry\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrequency\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003ePercentage\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/thead\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eManufacturing\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e260\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e41.53%\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eNon-manufacturing\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e366\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e58.47%\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eNature of ownership\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eState-owned enterprise\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e52\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e8.31%\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eOther\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e574\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e91.69%\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAge (years of operation)\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;3\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e32\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e5.11%\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e3\u0026ndash;5\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e113\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e18.05%\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;5\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e481\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e76.84%\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize (number of employees)\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;500\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e291\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e46.49%\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e500\u0026ndash;1000\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e146\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e23.32%\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;1000\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e189\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e30.19%\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tbody\u003e\u003c/colgroup\u003e\u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec11\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e4.2 Measures\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eDependent variable.\u003c/em\u003e The literature measures innovation performance in a variety of ways, for example, new product value (Hagedoorn \u0026amp; Cloodt, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR30\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2003\u003c/span\u003e), and innovation patent index (Ponta, Puliga, \u0026amp; Manzini, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR61\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e). A patent is widely regarded as a good indicator to measure innovation performance (Lungeanu, Stern, \u0026amp; Zajac, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR43\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e; Ma \u0026amp; Lee, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR52\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2008\u003c/span\u003e). However, this measurement ignores the defect that patents cannot represent all innovations. Hence, in many pieces of research, indicators such as R\u0026amp;D investment, number of patents, and number of standards hosted or participated in the formulation are also used to measure innovation performance (Cai \u0026amp; Dang, 2015). In this study, the Likert scale proposed by Baker and Sinkula (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR4\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1999\u003c/span\u003e) was used to measure innovation performance (as shown in Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIndependent variable.\u003c/em\u003e International ambidexterity. Following Makino, Lau, and Yeh (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR49\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2002\u003c/span\u003e), we measure international ambidexterity in terms of two different dimensions, the balance, and combined dimensions. Since the concept of \"international ambidexterity\" is developed based on organizational ambidexterity, we represent international ambidexterity by calculating the results of exploratory internationalization and exploitative internationalization (Gibson \u0026amp; Birkinshaw, 2004). Referring to Makino, Lau, and Yeh (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR49\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2002\u003c/span\u003e) and Hsu, Lien, and Chen (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR34\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e), this paper measured exploratory internationalization and exploitative internationalization using a 5-item Likert scale, respectively, ranging from \"1\" (strongly disagree) to \"7\" (strongly agree). We refer to Cao, Gedajlovic, Zhang (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR8\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2009\u003c/span\u003e), and Zhang and Duan (2010) for calculating the balance dimension and the combined dimension of international ambidexterity. Specifically, the balance dimension is expressed as 5 minus the absolute deviation of exploratory and exploitative internationalization, and the combined dimension is expressed as the product of exploratory and exploitative internationalization.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eModerating variable.\u003c/em\u003e The definition of improvisation ability in this study is based on some classical studies, so the measurement of improvisation ability is based on mature measurement scales. We refer to the existing literature on the definition of organizational improvisation, which not only considers transnational corporations to act quickly in response to changes in external environment and unexpected opportunities in a novel way (Yeniarasa et al.,2021), but also takes into account the spontaneity and immediacy of improvisation itself. Attention is paid to the degree to which improvisation is integrated in creation and execution (Moorman and Miner, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR55\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1998\u003c/span\u003e). Therefore, this study referred to Vera and Crosaan (2005), Liu et al (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR41\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e) and Wu et al (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR78\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e) and adapted the measurement items in the study, and obtained five measurement items suitable for this study: the company can handle accidents on site; The company's decision on emergent problems and subsequent implementation are almost simultaneous; Companies are constantly trying to solve problems in novel ways; Companies sometimes take risks to adopt new approaches or try new opportunities; Companies are able to learn new processes and knowledge from the experience of temporary creation.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eControl variables.\u003c/em\u003e This study controls for the influence of several variables that may affect the innovation performance of multinational corporations. First, previous studies have shown that large companies have more resources for R\u0026amp;D activities (Piperopoulos, Wu, \u0026amp; Wang, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR59\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e), so firm size may have an impact on corporate innovation output. Secondly, firm age is another control variable, because research has confirmed the influence of firm age on corporate innovation performance. The third controlling variable is the own nature of the business. According to the literature, compared with private enterprises, state-owned enterprises have more resources for international expansion and innovation, so the nature of enterprise ownership is a variable that needs to be controlled. We treat this variable as a dummy variable, coded as \"1\" if a multinational is state-owned, or \"0\" if not. The last control variable is the firm's sales revenue in the previous fiscal year. According to Li and Yu (2016), the sales revenue of an enterprise has a positive impact on innovation performance, so we take this factor into the scope of control.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec12\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e4.3 Common method Bias test\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwo homologous variance tests were performed by Harman single factor test and confirmatory factor analysis. Harman single-factor test results show that the first common factor accounts for 36.92% of the total load without rotation (\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;40%) (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee, Podsakoff, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR60\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2003\u003c/span\u003e). In addition, the results of confirmatory factor analysis showed that the single-factor model was poorly fitted (X2/df\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;23.114, RMSER\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.123, CFI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.574, TLI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.503, GFI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.617). Therefore, there is no common methodological bias in this study.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"5 Results","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec14\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e5.1 Measurement model\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eReliability analysis. In this study, combination reliability (CR) and internal consistency (represented by Cronbach alpha) were used to evaluate the reliability of the scale. In this study, CR and Cronbach alpha (α) values greater than 0.7 were used as criteria (MacKenzie, Podsakoff, \u0026amp; Podsakoff, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR48\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2011\u003c/span\u003e). Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e shows that α ranges from 0.862 to 0.885and CR ranges from 0.862 to 0.886. Therefore, the scale has high internal consistency and combination reliability.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eValidity analysis. According to Fornell and Larcker (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR27\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1981\u003c/span\u003e), convergent validity and discriminate validity were tested by the average variance extracted (AVE) (Because the researchers had clear expectations of the relationship between measures and variables. Therefore, this study obtained standardized factor loading of each project through confirmatory factor analysis, and calculated AVE). It can be seen from Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e that the AVE range is 0.555 to 0.609 (all greater than 0.5), indicating that this model meets the criteria for evaluating convergent validity. In addition, according to Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e, it can be seen that the square root of the AVE value of each variable is higher than the correlation coefficient between each variable and any other variable, so the scale has good discriminate validity (correlation between variables is obtained through confirmatory factor analysis). In addition, we examined the questionnaire structure by confirmatory factor analysis. The test results show that X2/df\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;2.318; RMSEA\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.020; NFI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.958; RFI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.949; IFI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.976; TLI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.970; CFI\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.975. Therefore, the model fits well and the scale has the characteristics of a four-factor structure model.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab2\" border=\"1\"\u003e\u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 2\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eResults of reliability and validity analysis\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/caption\u003e\u003ccolgroup cols=\"9\"\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c6\" colnum=\"6\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c7\" colnum=\"7\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c8\" colnum=\"8\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c9\" colnum=\"9\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eVariables\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eMeasure item\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eLoadings\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eα\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eCR\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eAVE\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eSquare root of AVE\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e2\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/thead\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\" morerows=\"4\" rowspan=\"5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1 Exploratory internationalization\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1. Obtain high level R\u0026amp;D and management talents from overseas\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.733\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\" morerows=\"4\" rowspan=\"5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.863\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\" morerows=\"4\" rowspan=\"5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.863\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\" morerows=\"4\" rowspan=\"5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.558\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\" morerows=\"4\" rowspan=\"5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.747\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\" morerows=\"4\" rowspan=\"5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\" morerows=\"4\" rowspan=\"5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e2. Obtain technological and marketing resources for innovation\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.764\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e3. Merge into foreign innovative atmosphere and obtain spillover effects\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.726\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e4. Use effective foreign R\u0026amp;D hardware infrastructure\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.781\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e5. Establish cooperative relationship with local leading firms\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.729\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\" morerows=\"4\" rowspan=\"5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e2 Exploitative internationalization\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1. Use technological advantages of enterprises in foreign markets\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.733\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\" morerows=\"4\" rowspan=\"5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.862\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\" morerows=\"4\" rowspan=\"5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.862\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\" morerows=\"4\" rowspan=\"5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.555\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\" morerows=\"4\" rowspan=\"5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.745\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c8\" morerows=\"4\" rowspan=\"5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.742***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\" morerows=\"4\" rowspan=\"5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e2. Enter foreign markets and expand development space\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.769\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e3. Produce products meeting the needs of foreign customers\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.725\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e4. Establish manufacturing base to reduce transportation cost\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.731\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e5. Use cheap labor and material resources in foreign markets\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.767\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\" morerows=\"4\" rowspan=\"5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e3 Improvisational ability\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1. We are able to deal with accidents on site\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.766\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\" morerows=\"4\" rowspan=\"5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.885\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\" morerows=\"4\" rowspan=\"5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.886\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\" morerows=\"4\" rowspan=\"5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.609\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\" morerows=\"4\" rowspan=\"5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.780\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c8\" morerows=\"4\" rowspan=\"5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.149***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c9\" morerows=\"4\" rowspan=\"5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.203***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e2. Our decisions on emergent issues and subsequent implementation are almost simultaneous\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.722\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e3. We are constantly trying to solve problems in novel ways\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.714\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e4. We sometimes take risks to take new approaches or try new opportunities\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.863\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e5. We are able to learn new processes and knowledge from the experience of temporary creation\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.826\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tbody\u003e\u003c/colgroup\u003e\u003ctfoot\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd colspan=\"9\"\u003eNote: Significance level *p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.05; **p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.01; ***p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001.\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tfoot\u003e\u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec15\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e5.2 Descriptive statistics and correlation matrix\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eTable\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab3\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e reports the descriptive statistical results of the variables.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab3\" border=\"1\"\u003e\u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 3\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eDescriptive statistics\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/caption\u003e\u003ccolgroup cols=\"5\"\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eVariables\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eMean\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eStandard deviation\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eMaximum\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eMinimum\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/thead\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eBalance dimension\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e4.53\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.327\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e5.0\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e2.6\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eCombined dimension\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e31.71\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e6.441\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e47.6\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e7.5\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eImprovisational ability\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e5.71\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.691\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e7.0\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e2.8\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eInnovation performance\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.00\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.656\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1.93\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-1.5\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tbody\u003e\u003c/colgroup\u003e\u003ctfoot\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd colspan=\"5\"\u003eNote: To eliminate the impact of dimensions, innovation performance is measured in standardized values.\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tfoot\u003e\u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTable\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab4\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e4\u003c/span\u003e reports the results of the correlation analysis. International ambidexterity (balance dimension: \u003cem\u003eβ\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.584, \u003cem\u003ep\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001, combined dimension: \u003cem\u003eβ\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.716, \u003cem\u003ep\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001), and Improvisational ability (\u003cem\u003eβ\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.288, \u003cem\u003ep\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001) showed a significant positive correlation with innovation performance.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab4\" border=\"1\"\u003e\u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 4\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eResults of correlation analysis\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/caption\u003e\u003ccolgroup cols=\"9\"\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c6\" colnum=\"6\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c7\" colnum=\"7\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c8\" colnum=\"8\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c9\" colnum=\"9\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eVariables\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e2\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e3\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e4\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e5\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e6\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e7\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e8\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/thead\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1 Balance dimension\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e2 Combined dimension\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.584***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e3 Improvisational ability\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.035\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.195***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e4 Innovation performance\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.532***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.716***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.288***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e5 Scale\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.165***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.232***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.118***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.290***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e6 Age\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.078\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.163**\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.097**\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.126***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.216***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e7 Nature of ownership\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.023\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.074\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.024\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.054\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.017\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.068\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e8 Last Year's Sales Revenue\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.141***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.213**\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.134***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.219***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.548***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.282***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.051\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tbody\u003e\u003c/colgroup\u003e\u003ctfoot\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd colspan=\"9\"\u003eNote: Significance level: *p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.05; **p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.01; ***p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001.\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tfoot\u003e\u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec16\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e5.3 Hypothesis test\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eSPSS 27.0 was used for mathematical statistical analysis. We tested the direct impact of international ambidexterity on innovation performance and the moderating effect of improvisation through multiple linear regression, and the results are shown in Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab5\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e5\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHypothesis H1a and hypothesis H1b indicate that the balanced and combined dimensions of international ambidexterity have a positive impact on innovation performance. The results of models 2 and 3 show that the regression coefficients of balance dimension and combined dimension are positive and significant (balance dimension: \u003cem\u003eβ\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.493, \u003cem\u003eP\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001; combined dimension: \u003cem\u003eβ\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.686, \u003cem\u003eP\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001). Therefore, the research results are supportive of hypothesis H1a and H1b.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHypothesis H2 explains the positive influence of improvisational ability on innovation performance. The regression coefficient of improvisational ability in Model 4 is significantly positive (\u003cem\u003eβ\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.251, \u003cem\u003eP\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001), so H2 is assumed to be acceptable.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn addition, hypothesis H3a and Hypothesis H3b suggest that improvisational ability plays a moderating role between international ambidexterity and innovation. The results of Model 5 and Model 6 show that the regression coefficients of the two dimensions of international ambidexterity and the interaction term of improvisational ability are both significant and positive (interaction term of Model 5: \u003cem\u003eβ\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.308, \u003cem\u003eP\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001; interaction term of Model 6: \u003cem\u003eβ\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.294, \u003cem\u003eP\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001). Therefore, hypotheses H3a and H3b pass the empirical test.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab5\" border=\"1\"\u003e\u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 5\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eResults of regression analysis\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/caption\u003e\u003ccolgroup cols=\"7\"\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c6\" colnum=\"6\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c7\" colnum=\"7\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eVariables\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eModel 1\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eModel 2\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eModel 3\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eModel 4\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eModel 5\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eModel 6\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/thead\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eNature of Business Ownership\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.042\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.035\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.002\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.039\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.021\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.012\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eLast Year's Sales Revenue\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.071\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.04\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.006\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.05\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.03\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.005\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eEnterprise Scale\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.239***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.179***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.131***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.225***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.136***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.123***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eEnterprise Age\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.051\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.035\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.016\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.036\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.018\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.01\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eBalance dimension\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.493***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.448***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eCombined dimension\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.686***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.522***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eImprovisational ability\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.251***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.211***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.143***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eBalance dimension*Improvisational ability\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.308***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eCombined dimension*Improvisational ability\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.294***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eR2 (adj)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.088\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.324\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.525\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.148\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.473\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.611\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eMax VIF\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1.490\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1.494\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1.500\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1.497\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1.502\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1.505\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eF\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e16.07\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e60.885\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e139.018\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e22.768\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e65.546\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e141.206\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tbody\u003e\u003c/colgroup\u003e\u003ctfoot\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd colspan=\"7\"\u003eNote: Significance level: *p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.05; **p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.01; ***p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001.\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tfoot\u003e\u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec17\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e5.4 Robustness test\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn order to test the reliability of the results, the method of sample reduction and grouping test was used to conduct regression analysis again. First, China's state-owned enterprises have more stringent regulations and planning than their private counterparts, so they may be less improvisational for these reasons. Therefore, we excluded all state-owned enterprises in the sample and conducted regression analysis on the remaining samples of non-state-owned enterprises. The results are shown in Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab6\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e6\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab6\" border=\"1\"\u003e\u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 6\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eRobustness test results (Reduced sample, n\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;573)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/caption\u003e\u003ccolgroup cols=\"7\"\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c6\" colnum=\"6\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c7\" colnum=\"7\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eVariables\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eModel 1\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eModel 2\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eModel 3\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eModel 4\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eModel 5\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eModel 6\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/thead\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eLast Year's Sales Revenue\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.052\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.019\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.016\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.032\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.011\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.021\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eEnterprise Scale\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.226***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.163***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.123***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.212***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.129**\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.114***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eEnterprise Age\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.063\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.054\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.002\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.047\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.03\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.005\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eBalance dimension\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.508***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.446***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eCombined dimension\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.693***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.529***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eImprovisational ability\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.254***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.210***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.123***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eBalance dimension*Improvisational ability\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.296***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eCombined dimension*Improvisational ability\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.298***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eR2 (adj)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.074\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.324\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.524\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.136\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.463\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.609\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eMax VIF\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1.498\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1.503\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1.508\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1.505\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1.510\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1.512\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eF\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e16.192\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e69.683\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e158.312\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e23.479\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e83.350\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e149.526\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tbody\u003e\u003c/colgroup\u003e\u003ctfoot\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd colspan=\"7\"\u003eNote: Significance level: *p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.05; **p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.01; ***p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001.\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tfoot\u003e\u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn addition, due to the large differences in knowledge intensity and technology intensity in different industries, the internationalization strategy and life cycle of enterprises are also different. As a result, ambidextrous international strategies may perform differently in terms of innovation. The intensity of market competition in different industries may also be different, and improvisation behavior and improvisation ability may have different performances in different industries. In order to further test whether the impact of internationalization duality on enterprise innovation performance will be significantly different due to different industry types of enterprises, and to test the reliability of previous analysis results, this study divides the samples into manufacturing and non-manufacturing groups according to the industry types of enterprises, and conducts tests in different groups. The test results are shown in Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab7\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e7\u003c/span\u003e and Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab8\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e8\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab7\" border=\"1\"\u003e\u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 7\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eGroup test results (manufacturing enterprises, n\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;260)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/caption\u003e\u003ccolgroup cols=\"7\"\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c6\" colnum=\"6\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c7\" colnum=\"7\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eVariables\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eModel 1\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eModel 2\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eModel 3\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eModel 4\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eModel 5\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eModel 6\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/thead\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eNature of Business Ownership\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.064\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.041\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.021\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.062\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.037\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.013\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eLast Year's Sales Revenue\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.03\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.04\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.036\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.047\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.046\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.037\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eEnterprise Scale\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.300***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.258***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.198***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.280***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.217***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.174***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eEnterprise Age\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.014\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.045\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.079\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.028\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.055\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.077\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eBalance dimension\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.444***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.457***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eCombined dimension\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.667***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.515***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eImprovisational ability\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.261***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.177***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.134***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eBalance dimension*Improvisational ability\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.342***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eCombined dimension*Improvisational ability\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.303***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eR2 (adj)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.073\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.265\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.499\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.137\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.445\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.598\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eMax VIF\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1.396\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1.396\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1.396\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1.400\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1.401\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1.402\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eF\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e6.093\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e19.648\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e52.695\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e9.244\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e30.632\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e56.010\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tbody\u003e\u003c/colgroup\u003e\u003ctfoot\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd colspan=\"7\"\u003eNote: Significance level: *p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.05; **p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.01; ***p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001.\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tfoot\u003e\u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab8\" border=\"1\"\u003e\u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 8\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eGroup test results (non-manufacturing enterprises, n\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;366)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/caption\u003e\u003ccolgroup cols=\"7\"\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c6\" colnum=\"6\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c7\" colnum=\"7\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eVariables\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eModel 1\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eModel 2\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eModel 3\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eModel 4\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eModel 5\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eModel 6\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/thead\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eNature of Business Ownership\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.042\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.045\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.005\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.039\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e-0.021\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.023\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eLast Year's Sales Revenue\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.159*\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.115*\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.044\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.133*\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.099*\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.026\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eEnterprise Scale\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.190*\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.117*\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.083\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.181*\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.078\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.088\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eEnterprise Age\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.097\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.093*\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.027\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.081\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.067\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.034\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eBalance dimension\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.529***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.448***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eCombined dimension\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.701***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.528***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eImprovisational ability\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.234***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.222***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.142***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eBalance dimension*Improvisational ability\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.291***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eCombined dimension*Improvisational ability\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.289***\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eR2 (adj)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.113\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.382\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.555\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.164\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.503\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.630\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eMax VIF\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1.573\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1.580\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1.603\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1.586\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1.593\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1.611\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eF\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e12.592\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e46.186\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e92.106\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e15.360\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e53.875\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e89.781\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tbody\u003e\u003c/colgroup\u003e\u003ctfoot\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd colspan=\"7\"\u003eNote: Significance level: *p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.05; **p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.01; ***p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001.\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tfoot\u003e\u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt can be seen from the robustness results above that despite the sample reduction or grouping, the difference between the results of the benchmark test and the results of the robustness test is small, and the conclusion is reliable.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"6 Discussion, implication and limitations","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec19\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e6.1 Theoretical implication\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe findings of this paper provide new insights into the role of ambidexterity and improvisational ability in the innovation of transnational corporations, and embody theoretical value in three aspects.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFirst, based on an ambidexterity perspective, this study proposes that ambidextrous internationalization strategy is still an effective strategy for multinational enterprises to effectively cope with the current international environment where transnational management challenges such as tougher nationalism and extreme supply chain optimization are frequent (Chetty, Gabrielsson \u0026amp; Gabrielsson, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR9\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). It enriches the existing research on the internationalization strategy of transnational corporations. The rapid reshaping of the global order is placing new demands on international business research and management practices, and innovation networks will require new structures and configurations (Petricevic \u0026amp; Teece,2019). Building on existing research on the theory of ambidexterity, this study examines the positive effects of ambidextrous internationalization strategies in effectively responding to volatile business environments and enabling innovation, and responds to the current theoretical dialogue on how multinational corporations can adjust their international operations and strategies to respond to greater turbulence in the global economy (Silvers, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR69\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSecondly, this paper introduces improvisational ability as a moderating variable, and expands the research literature on the boundary conditions for ambidexterity to promote innovation. This study integrates a large amount of literature on the competitive advantage and innovation of multinational corporations and presents a comprehensive theoretical framework. In this framework, we examine how the interaction between improvisational ability and ambidextrous internationalization strategies can play a positive role in improving innovation performance. This has important theoretical significance for the study of situational factors in the relationship between ambidexterity and innovation performance. Provides new insights into how emerging market multinationals such as China can improve innovation performance and gain competitive advantage through international ambidexterity (Khan, Amankwah-Amoah, Lew, Puthusserry, \u0026amp; Czinkota, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR38\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFinally, this study examines the positive impact of improvisational ability on innovation performance, expands the use of improvisation in international business research, and complements the existing innovation literature. From an organizational learning perspective (Miner, Bassof, \u0026amp; Moorman, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR54\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2001\u003c/span\u003e), this study discusses and verifies the role of improvisational ability in multinationals' ability to quickly respond to volatile environments and unexpected events and achieve innovation. Most of the past improvisation literature focused on the improvisation of start-ups, focusing on the triggers of improvisation, but little was known about how companies benefit from improvisation (Liu et al.,2018). Taking transnational corporations as the research object, this study examines the important role of improvisational ability in transnational management of large international corporations, and supplements and improves the existing improvisation literature.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec20\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e6.2 Managerial implication\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eFirst, the empirical findings of this study have clear practical significance for multinational enterprise managers. Innovation and ambidexterity have been long-standing problems in international business management (Liu, Collinson, Cooper, \u0026amp; Baglieri, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR42\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e). We believe that multinational enterprises should develop third-order dynamic internationalization capabilities (international ambidexterity) in the process of internationalization (Prange \u0026amp; Verdier, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR62\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2011\u003c/span\u003e). Although there may be challenges in implementing ambidexterity in practice (Hsu, Lien, \u0026amp; Chen, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR34\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e), multinational corporations should still balance their exploratory and exploitative activities in the internationalization process, which is essential for successful internationalization as well as firm innovation. When resources are limited, managers can choose exploration or exploitation according to the relative gap between actual performance and target performance, so as to establish a balanced resource allocation mechanism between the two (Fu, Liao, Liu, \u0026amp; Lu, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR26\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSecond, this research provides useful insights into how managers can adapt their operational strategies to quickly respond to a complex and volatile international business environment. Transnational management after the COVID-19 pandemic will need to effectively face additional external shocks, including geopolitical tensions, supply chain shortages, and climate change (Chetty, Gabrielsson, \u0026amp; Gabrielsson,2024). But the backdrop of a turbulent business environment also provides the conditions for multinationals to develop the ability to improvise, learn from unconscious experiences, and achieve innovation (Chetty, Gabrielsson, \u0026amp; Gabrielsson,2024). Therefore, this study puts forward two practical suggestions. From the perspective of planning, multinational companies should realize that ambidextrous internationalization strategy is a key strategy to improve innovation performance in an uncertain competitive environment. From a quick response perspective, managers must also realize that improvisation gives the company the opportunity to respond quickly to temporary events and seize fleeting opportunities.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFinally, this study encourages managers to learn quickly from improvisation and improve their improvisation ability, so as to improve their innovation ability and final innovation performance. At present, the intensity of competition has been greatly intensified, and the time pressure has gradually increased. Enterprises often quickly create new products and new processes through improvisation (Seo et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR68\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e, Adomako et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e.). Improvisation is inevitable (Liu et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR41\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e). Past research has generally found that improvisation has a mixed effect on innovation (Vera and Crossan,2005). On the one hand, scholars of the \"reactive\" view believe that in the face of unexpected shocks, the organization's previously thorough plans will become irrelevant, and improvisation may reduce the effectiveness of the product. On the contrary, scholars of \"initiative\" logic believe that improvisation means that managers can continuously and creatively adapt to changes and quickly introduce new products and services (Liu et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR41\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e). This study believes that the effect of improvisation on innovation performance is influenced by many factors, such as organizational learning ability, corporate resource factors and structural factors (Liu et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR41\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e). Resource slack, the inventory of excess resources available to firms, is thought to be conducive to innovation (Damanpour, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR19\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1991\u003c/span\u003e). Previous literature has shown that idle resources are critical in transforming unexpected activities into innovations (Saemundsson and Candi, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR66\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e). Therefore, if an enterprise expects to promote innovation through improvisation skills, it may first need to investigate the resource reserve of the enterprise in order to exert the positive effect of improvisation.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec21\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e6.3 Limitation and future research\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eFirst of all, although the research sample includes multinational corporations of different industries and sizes with subsidiaries all over the world, these multinational corporations are all based in China, which limits the universal applicability of the research conclusions to some extent. We believe that including large samples from different home countries will provide more interesting conclusions. In addition, the multinational companies in the research samples come from different industries, so this study did not classify the samples and conduct a more detailed study. In fact, due to the differences in knowledge intensity and competition intensity, the internationalization strategy and improvisation strategy of multinational companies in different industries may be different. This could be an opportunity for further research.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"Declarations","content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eInformed consent\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe work has not been considered to publish elsewhere, in whole or in part. All authors have approved to this submission to your esteemed journal. This consent procedure was approved by the Ethics Committee of Anhui university business school on June 2, 2024. Its publication is also approved tacitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out. We agree that if accepted, the paper will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the Publisher. \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEthical approval\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAll procedures performed in this study involving human participants were conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional ethics committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Ethical approval for the study was granted by the Ethics Committee of Anhui University business school on June 2, 2024. The approval covered the survey of Anhui University business school and its associations with research contents. \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFunding:\u003c/strong\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis research was supported by the National Social Science Foundation Project of China (Grant No. 23BGL127).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis work was supported the foundation of Anhui Provincial Department of Education [grant number 2022AH050021]. \u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDeclarations of Interest:\u003c/strong\u003e there is no competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"References ","content":"\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAdomako S, Opoku RA, \u0026amp; Frimpong, K. 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(2002) Absorptive capacity: a review, reconceptualization, and extension. \u003cem\u003eAcademy of Management Review\u003c/em\u003e. 27(2): 185-203. doi: 10.2307/4134351.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e"}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":true,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":false,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"humanities-and-social-sciences-communications","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"palcomms","sideBox":"Learn more about [Humanities \u0026 Social Sciences Communications](http://www.nature.com/palcomms/)","snPcode":"41599","submissionUrl":"https://submission.springernature.com/new-submission/41599/3","title":"Humanities and Social Sciences Communications","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Nature AJ","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"Ambidextrous strategy, Ambidexterity, Innovation performance, Improvisational ability, Multinationals","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6809582/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6809582/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThis study attempts to answer the question of how multinational corporations adapt their strategies to cope with the volatile international business environment from the perspective of ambidexterity and improvisation. This study establishes a moderating model between international ambidexterity, improvisational ability and innovation performance. The sample analysis of 626 Chinese multinational companies using SPSS software shows that: (1) the balance dimension of ambidextrous strategy has a positive impact on innovation performance; (2) the combined dimension of ambidextrous strategy has a positive impact on innovation performance and has a greater effect than the balanced dimension; (3) improvisational ability not only directly promotes the improvement of innovation performance, but also has different moderating effects on the relationship between different dimensions of ambidextrous strategy and innovation performance.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJEL codes \u003c/strong\u003eA10; F23; L25; M16; O30; P20\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Ambidextrous strategy for improving innovation performance of multinationals in a turbulent environment: the moderating role of improvisational ability","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-09-16 13:14:25","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6809582/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"83002132865025236831341758397066674445","date":"2026-05-12T09:26:05+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"291497761823920449117529249882635565654","date":"2026-05-11T13:50:43+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"209930920019214981349205361359402622550","date":"2026-05-09T15:53:27+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"57351166681813866233795333825097296365","date":"2026-01-21T13:15:38+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"62374709976195369457494229733696982566","date":"2025-11-05T00:23:27+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-11-04T19:25:45+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"85207883180347451152238373472108541899","date":"2025-10-08T07:25:19+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2025-09-09T12:39:33+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvited","content":"","date":"2025-09-03T09:24:34+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2025-08-17T12:55:04+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2025-08-09T13:58:21+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"Humanities and Social Sciences Communications","date":"2025-06-03T09:24:15+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"humanities-and-social-sciences-communications","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"palcomms","sideBox":"Learn more about [Humanities \u0026 Social Sciences Communications](http://www.nature.com/palcomms/)","snPcode":"41599","submissionUrl":"https://submission.springernature.com/new-submission/41599/3","title":"Humanities and Social Sciences Communications","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Nature AJ","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"9cdb25d1-6ee3-4b21-8073-6b57b0bcc6e1","owner":[],"postedDate":"September 16th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"83002132865025236831341758397066674445","date":"2026-05-12T09:26:05+00:00","index":120,"fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"291497761823920449117529249882635565654","date":"2026-05-11T13:50:43+00:00","index":119,"fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"209930920019214981349205361359402622550","date":"2026-05-09T15:53:27+00:00","index":116,"fulltext":""}],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[{"id":54685591,"name":"Business and commerce/Business and management"},{"id":54685592,"name":"Social science/Development studies"},{"id":54685593,"name":"Social science/Economics"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-09-16T13:14:25+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-09-16 13:14:25","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-6809582","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-6809582","identity":"rs-6809582","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}