Discussion
In emerging economies, organizational change, though difficult, has become a common phenomenon, especially among high-tech firms. Going beyond existing literature, we propose that the performance effects of technical and administrative change are not only curvilinear but also differential across various conditions. With a survey study of 213 hightech firms in China, we find that the effects of technical and administrative change on firm performance are both U-shaped. Moreover, whereas customer participation strengthens the effect of technical change on firm performance, customer participation and innovation ambidexterity both attenuate the effect of administrative change on firm performance.
These findings contribute to organizational change literature by providing new insights into the nonlinear effects of organizational change and clarifying understanding of the roles of customer participation and innovation ambidexterity in emerging economies. First, this article offers an initial investigation of a nonlinear effect of organizational change in emerging economies. Prior studies of the relationship between organizational change and performance provide inconsistent findings (Table 1). Some research indicates that organizational change enhances firm performance; other studies find negative effects or no impact. These inconsistent findings may be due to the nonlinear effect of organizational change.
