Inclusive urban entrepreneurial ecosystem: An exploration of factors affecting organizational ambidexterity

Abstract

One of the main challenges inclusive urban entrepreneurial ecosystems (IUEEs) face is balancing their organizations' two opposing individual and cooperative activities. The closest concept in the management of dual structures is the so-called organizational ambidexterity (OA). We refer to it as “Individual–Collective Organizational Ambidexterity”. Thus, it is necessary to explore factors affecting the OA of the IUEE's organizations to benefit simultaneously from individual and collective potentials and form successfully. To do so, a model was designed by examining the factors affecting the OA capacity of the IUEE's organizations. The statistical population was organizations involved in the IUEE of 36 cities in Kermanshah province, one of the poorest provinces in IRAN (N = 2041). 328 valid responses were collected as statistical sample based on the sampling table of Krejcie and Morgan (from 1970), and through the proportional stratified sampling method. The main instrument was a questionnaire. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 26 and Smartpls3 software. The results showed among the factors studied, diversity, learning orientation, and promotion of entrepreneurial culture had a positive and significant effect on OA. Networking capacities and commitment to collaboration in the ecosystem did not significantly affect OA. OA also had a positive and significant effect on the performance of IUEE. The discussion eventually suggests the future directions of the research. The findings of this study can be used to develop IUEEs and achieve entrepreneurial cities.