Third, the results suggest that performance is positively
affected by tension emerging from the combined use of OC
and MC in both exploratory and exploitative innovation
projects. These results extend the findings of Henri (2006),
who in an ex post analysis revealed that dynamic tension
might have a direct positive and significant impact on performance,
in particular for firms facing high environmental
uncertainty and with values encompassing flexibility. The
results are also in line with Lewis et al. (2002), who
argued that meeting tenuous demands for innovation and
efficiency requires a blend of “emergent” (organic) and
“planned” (mechanistic) approaches, and that managing
tensions between flexibility and efficiency may prove key
to strong project performance. Combining opposing forms
of control such as OC and MC enables the desired direct
and indirect effects of OC and MC to simultaneously yield
high positive levels of both.