Abstract: Ambidextrous innovation plays an important role in the process of high-quality sustainable development of firms. Resource-based theory suggests that unique and valuable knowledge is the key to innovation. Proactive boundary-spanning search, as an important way to acquire external knowledge, can facilitate ambidextrous innovation. Therefore, it is worth exploring how proactive boundary-spanning search affects ambidextrous innovation. Moreover, in the new normal of VUCA and the era of digital intelligence, firms not only need to have organizational resilience to cope with external emergencies and unexpected events, but also need to have digital capability to orchestrate and utilize knowledge. Thus, it is necessary to uncover the relationship between proactive boundary-spanning search and ambidextrous innovation by considering organizational resilience and digital capability. Drawing on resource-based theory, dynamic capabilities theory and information processing theory, this study explores the impact of proactive boundary-spanning search on ambidextrous innovation and organizational resilience, and examines the moderating role of digital capability. Based on the data of 268 knowledge-intensive firms, the empirical results indicate that proactive boundary-spanning search has an inverted U-shaped relationship with exploratory innovation and exploitative innovation, and it also has an inverted U-shaped relationship with organizational external and internal resilience. The results also find that organizational external resilience partially mediates the relationship between proactive boundary-spanning search and exploratory innovation, while organizational internal resilience partially mediates the relationship between proactive boundary-spanning search and exploitative innovation. Moreover, digital capability moderates and flattens the inverted U-shaped relationship between proactive boundary-spanning search and organizational external and internal resilience, respectively. This study has four theoretical contributions. First, the research uncovers the nonlinear impact of proactive boundary-spanning search on exploratory innovation and exploitative innovation. Based on resource-based theory, the results reveal that proactive boundary-spanning search is an important antecedent of ambidextrous innovation and it plays double-edged sword effect on ambidextrous innovation. This deeply reveals the internal driving mechanism of proactive boundary-spanning search on ambidextrous innovation. Second, the research clarifies the nonlinear effects of proactive boundary-spanning search on organizational external resilience and internal resilience. Drawing on dynamic capabilities theory, the study reveals the important role of proactive boundary-spanning search in organizational external and internal resilience, and enriches the research on the antecedents of organizational resilience. Third, the study elucidates the mediating role of organizational resilience among proactive boundary-spanning search and exploratory and exploitative innovations under the new normal of VUCA. The results clarify the effect of proactive boundary-spanning search on exploratory innovation and exploitative innovation via different organizational resilience, and provide new insights for the relationship between proactive boundary-spanning search and ambidextrous innovation. Fourth, the study finds the moderating effect of digital capability on the inverted U-shaped relationship among proactive boundary-spanning search and organizational external and internal resilience, which uncovers the mechanism of proactive boundary-spanning search on ambidextrous innovation by considering organizational resilience and digital capability under the new normal of VUCA and the era of digital intelligence, and provides theoretical guidance for Chinese firms to carry out ambidextrous innovation.

摘要： 双元创新是企业高质量可持续发展的重要途径，然而在VUCA新常态和数智时代，前瞻性跨界搜索如何影响组织韧性和双元创新仍不明确。本文基于资源基础理论、动态能力理论及信息处理理论，探究前瞻性跨界搜索对双元创新和组织韧性的影响，并分析数字化能力的调节作用。268家知识密集型企业的实证研究结果表明：前瞻性跨界搜索对探索式创新和利用式创新有倒U型影响，对组织外部韧性和内部韧性也有倒U型影响；组织外部韧性在前瞻性跨界搜索与探索式创新之间起部分中介作用，组织内部韧性在前瞻性跨界搜索与利用式创新之间起部分中介作用；数字化能力调节并扁平化前瞻性跨界搜索分别和组织外部韧性及内部韧性间的倒U型关系。研究揭示了前瞻性跨界搜索通过组织韧性作用于双元创新的内在机理，为企业开展双元创新提供理论指导。