The curvilinear relationship between advice-giving and innovative capability: a knowledge exchange and combination explanation of the moderated relations

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to elucidate how the advice-giving affects innovative capability by involving knowledge exchange and combination as a mediator and contextual ambidexterity as an important contingency. Design/methodology/approach Based on a survey of 96 Chinese teams, a set of hypotheses was tested using regression analyzes. Findings The findings showed that contextual ambidexterity moderates the indirect effect of advice-giving on innovative capability through knowledge exchange and combination. When contextual ambidexterity is high, workers engage in more knowledge exchange and combination for the team at intermediate levels of advice-giving, the indirect effect of advice-giving at low levels and at high levels exist. When contextual ambidexterity is low, there is no indirect effect of advice-giving at any level. Practical implications Managers should be aware of the inverted U-shaped relationship between advice-giving and innovative capability and strengthen the construction of contextual ambidexterity. Originality/value This paper makes up for the theoretical gap between advice-giving and innovative capability. Furthermore, it provides a theoretical reference for practitioners to improve their innovative capability.