IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/respol/v54y2025i1s004873332400180x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Balancing the radical and the incremental: CEO affiliative humor and organizational ambidexterity

Author

Listed:
  • Campbell, Robert J.
  • Short, Cole E.
  • Graffin, Scott D.

Abstract

Organizational ambidexterity is positively associated with firm performance. Yet, it is difficult for CEOs to implement ambidextrous strategies as the radical and incremental innovations that underlie ambidexterity are seemingly incongruous. As such, an important task for both scholars and practitioners involves discerning which factors influence organizational ambidexterity. Building on incongruity theory, we address this puzzle by focusing on CEO affiliative humor, establishing its link with ambidexterity, and further developing and testing theory related to boundary conditions. Through videometric analysis of executive interviews, textual analysis of quarterly earnings calls, and a series of supplemental tests, we offer robust evidence for our study's key relationships. Our study thus makes several contributions, including shedding light on a new pathway—CEO affiliative humor—through which firms can carry out and manage the radical and incremental innovations that underlie ambidexterity, as well by highlighting the complementary role of the CEO-director interface in this regard.

Suggested Citation

  • Campbell, Robert J. & Short, Cole E. & Graffin, Scott D., 2025. "Balancing the radical and the incremental: CEO affiliative humor and organizational ambidexterity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(1).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:54:y:2025:i:1:s004873332400180x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2024.105131
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004873332400180X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.respol.2024.105131?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:54:y:2025:i:1:s004873332400180x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/respol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.