Innovation as a growth engine

Ambidexterity, knowledge exchange and the role of academia in shaping future-ready R&D

The innovation capability has emerged as one of the important pillars in determining the business profitability and success. This is the reason organizations are innovating in products and services, and adopting new technologies to build competitive advantage. Firms are not limited to their internal R&D departments, rather are looking forward to academic institutions for new knowledge, skills, and technologies. This emerged partnership between industry and academia is known as industry-academic knowledge transfer (IAK) – a more powerful innovation tool. Having such interactions between academia and industry benefits the industrial world by solving problems and enriches the academia by grounding the same practically and is also known as exploration and exploitation. Where, exploration focuses on new products and innovations, while the exploitation means refining existing capabilities and offerings. Balancing these both is very important for sustainable research and development of the firm, as it helps in meeting market changes, advancements in technology, and meeting the needs of customers. However, some firms invest in one of the two only. This is why IAK is considered important as it provides fresh perspectives for innovation and improvements. We conducted a study (recently published in the Journal of Knowledge Management) that focused on several key areas: how is organizational innovation capacity influencing R&D performance in the industry-academia collaboration, how exploitation and exploration innovation impacts the firms R&D performance, and does IAK moderates the relationship between organizational innovation capacity and innovation ambidexterity using a questionnaire-based survey on Likert scale (1 as strongly disagree to 5 as strongly agree). Analysing the  387 respondents consisting of 346 industry professionals and 41 academics the study proposes its findings.

Prof. Sachin Kumar Prof. Vinod Kumar

Main findings

1. Innovation Capability is the engine behind R&D growth: companies with robust innovation capabilities don’t only survive but also thrive. Research supports the notion that innovation capability drives exploration and exploitation efforts, enabling firms to enter new markets while refining what they do best. On one side, it spurs breakthrough thinking and encourages firms to test new technologies, create improved solutions, and create breakthrough products. On the other, it grounds companies in relentless improvement and streamlining existing operations, eliminating costs, and providing value to their existing customers. 
2. The power of ambidexterity: mastering both exploration and exploitation is important for firms as firms are no longer left with any choices in this competitive environment. Launching something new to the market or upgrading the existing always play an important role in market winning with improved products and services.  It’s not about choosing between exploration and exploitation – it’s about mastering both. The study found that organizations capable of juggling these twin innovation strategies – known as ambidextrous organizations – see stronger R&D performance. Whether it’s launching something entirely new or upgrading the familiar, both paths contribute to creating market-winning products and processes. This supports the second research question.
3. Industry academia partnership is a catalyst: IAK does not improve exploitative innovation, however, it is an important catalyst in strengthening the relationship between innovation capability and exploration innovation.  Hence, collaborating with Academia generates new and improved ideas to launch new products, adopting technological advancements and changes etc. 
4. Exploration gets the Bigger Boost: since, the academic collaboration supports innovation exploration, helping firms to tap new and emerging markets helps to break the normal routines. Thus, working as a creativity booster. 
5. Balancing both internal and external innovation: balancing both internal innovation and external capabilities (academic collaboration), helps maximizing the R&D outcomes. Hence, firms must choose both the capabilities instead focusing on one parameter. 

Potential applications for business 

The organizational innovation capability is central in driving radical and incremental innovation. Firms ought to prioritize OIC as a strategic resource by investing in internal systems, talent, and a culture that embraces creativity and risk-taking which is aligned with dynamic capability and resource-based view perspectives. Moreover, ambidextrous firms that combine exploratory (new markets, ideas) and exploitative (refinement, efficiency) innovation outperform those using these initiatives individually. 

The managers in organizations should exclusively focus on exploitative innovation for short-term returns while maintaining exploratory activity for sustained long-term growth, hence enhancing R&D performance. Furthermore, the IAK has a catalyst effect that drives exploration and exploitation innovation both. Since, interaction with academia introduces new research skills and thinking, partnership for research among industry and academia facilitates tapping the external knowledge. It is observed that organizations must develop exploitative innovation to enhance efficiency and current products, followed by investing in exploratory innovation to match future trends, and lastly enhancing overall innovation capability through learning and partnership. Surprisingly, IAK has a stronger effect on exploratory than on exploitative innovation.

Therefore, academic alliances are particularly worthwhile for early-stage, high-uncertainty projects. Finally, organizations that excel at both exploration and exploitation have improved R&D performance and more robust market positions. Flexible innovation processes, dynamic resource deployment, and performance measures on both fronts are required.

Policymakers and institutions

Policy-makers and education systems can also gain from these findings. Promoting cross-sector innovation hotspots, providing funding incentives for industry and academia partnerships, and establishing talent pipelines through student and industry projects can help in enhancing national and regional innovations. 

References

Kumar, V., Kumar, S., Chaudhuri, R., Chatterjee, S., Vrontis, D., & Rezaee Vessal, S. (2025). Innovation capability and R&D performance of organizations: Moderating role of industry–academic knowledge transfer. Journal of Knowledge Management, 29(3), 891-914.