Exploring the Co-Effect of Market-Orientation and Ambidextrous Innovation in Service Innovation of SMEs

Market-orientation capability (MOC) and ambidextrous innovation (AI) as dynamic capabilities have a significant role in the success of SME service innovation. Their co-effect, which has not been studied previously, represents the linking strategy and actions that relate MOC to AI to reconfigure resources based on market insights to balance the exploration-based and exploration-based innovation activities and leads SMEs to seize service innovation opportunities effectively. Thus, this study examined the relationships among these variables and firm performance, considering international environmental hostility (IEH) as a moderator, in a model using data from 154 tourism and travel firms in Iran as an emerging market. The results revealed a significant association between each of MOC and AI with firm performance, in which IEH significantly moderates these relationships. Besides, their co-effect negatively influences the firm performance, which indicates a weak relation between MOC and AI in these SMEs. This research suggests that tourism SME managers should deliberately adjust the linking strategy between their MOC and AI to accurately respond to service innovation opportunities and attempt to turn the threats of environmental hostility into opportunities for the sustainability of their firm performance.