A model for creating and implementing ambidextrous innovation in Iran's banking industry

Objective

Iran's banking industry is one of the service-oriented industries that has faced many challenges and problems in the past few years. One of the ways out of these problems is to turn to innovation, especially ambidextrous innovation. For this reason, the purpose of the current research is to identify the factors of creation and implementation of ambidextrous innovation in the banking industry of Iran and to prioritize these factors in the form of structural-interpretive model (ISM).



Methodology

The paradigm of this research is pragmatism, and in terms of practical purpose and in terms of gathering information, it is a hybrid approach. The field of research is the banking industry of Iran. The statistical population of this research is experts, university teachers, senior managers of banks, as well as experts in the fields of innovation, technology, digital transformation, re-engineering of processes in the bank, who have sufficient knowledge and expertise, as well as responsibility in the field of strategy, decision-making and implementation of innovation in banks. is. For this purpose, judgmental sampling method has been used in this research. The current research has been done in two qualitative and quantitative stages. In the qualitative stage, the method of content analysis has been used. At this stage, firstly, the existing literature was studied and reviewed in the field of ambidextrous innovation, and then interviews were conducted with 24 experts of the banking industry, and finally, the effective factors on the creation and implementation of ambidextrous innovation in the banking industry were extracted. In the quantitative section, a questionnaire was distributed among 13 experts. The collected data were used to form the self-interaction matrix and go through the stages of structural-interpretive modeling. Finally, by implementing structural-interpretive modeling steps, the factors identified in the qualitative section were prioritized and presented in the form of a model.



Findings

Based on the findings of this research, in the qualitative part, the factors affecting the creation and implementation of ambidextrous innovation in the banking industry were identified in the form of 67 components, 15 concepts and 6 main categories. The mechanism of executive process, organizational learning, the role of leadership style in innovation, creating technological and technological infrastructures, organizational foundation and understanding the turbulence of the competitive environment are the 6 main categories identified for the creation and implementation of ambidextrous innovation in Iran's banking industry. Also, based on the results of the quantitative section, these factors were classified in three levels. In the first level, which is the mechanism of the executive process, organizational learning and the creation of technological and technological infrastructures are located. At the second level is the role of leadership style in innovation, and finally, at the third level is organizational foundation and understanding of the turbulences of the competitive environment. so, the final research model was presented.



Conclusion

Based on results, first of all, the managers of the banking industry should consider the organizational foundation and understanding of the environmental turbulences that have the most influence and the least influence from other factors. In the next stage, the managers of this industry should pay attention to innovative and collaborative styles in order to support the creation and implementation of ambidextrous innovation in the banking industry, and in the last stage, the managers of this industry should develop their technological infrastructure, to organizational learning and knowledge management in Banks should pay special attention and operationalize the implementation process of ambidextrous innovation. Based on the results of this research, it can be said that the implementation of two-pronged innovation based on exploratory and exploitative innovation can transform Iran's banking industry into a dynamic industry. Ambidextrous innovation makes active banks in our country free from the state of organizational emptiness and lack of motivation of employees and turn to the creation of diverse financial products based on the needs of their customers. Based on the results of the research, another consequence of the creation and implementation of ambidextrous innovation in Iranian banks is to improve the performance of the country's banking and financial ecosystem. Creating different networks and alliances between different elements of the banking ecosystem and financing for the value chain of businesses can be one of the results of the implementation of ambidextrous innovation in Iran's banking system.