Marco-Lajara, Bartolomé, Úbeda-García, Mercedes, Zaragoza Sáez, Patrocinio del Carmen, García-Lillo, Francisco
Agglomeration, social capital and interorganizational ambidexterity in tourist districts
Journal of Business Research. 2022, 141: 126-136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.12.016
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10045/120320
DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.12.016
ISSN: 0148-2963 (Print)
Abstract: 
Knowledge is a basic factor of competitiveness with a firm’s exploration and exploitation capabilities acting as the main antecedents of innovation. However, a firm has two main options to obtain new knowledge: internal generation and external acquisition. This paper analyzes how tourism firms located in tourist districts develop ambidexterity through the combination of co-exploration and co-exploitation. Specifically, we study how the features that characterize a tourist district, such as the level of firm and institutional agglomeration, affect the development of co-exploration and co-exploitation capabilities, taking into account the mediation effect of social capital. The population under study includes all the Spanish hotels located in Spanish coastal towns, making a total sample of 210 establishments. The results confirm that agglomeration has a positive impact on the ambidexterity of Spanish hotels. Moreover, the results show that agglomeration causes an increase of social capital in hotels, and that social capital has a positive impact on ambidexterity. We find that social capital partially mediates the effect of agglomeration on ambidexterity. Some implications for managers and policymakers are presented.
Keywords:Agglomeration, Interorganizational ambidexterity, Co-exploration, Co-exploitation, Social capital
Elsevier
info:eu-repo/semantics/article