Purpose Firms pursuing carbon neutrality must engage in both exploratory and exploitative green innovation, yet balancing these two types of innovation poses a significant challenge due to their different resource needs and risk profiles. Network embeddedness within industrial clusters, including structural and relational embeddedness, can help address this challenge by providing access to heterogeneous resources and mitigating innovation risks. However, existing research has paid limited attention to how different types of network embeddedness influence ambidextrous green innovation and under what conditions these effects are shaped. To address this gap, this study aims to examine how structural and relational embeddedness within clusters influence ambidextrous green innovation through resource orchestration capability, and how network routines and normative pressure moderate these relationships. Design/methodology/approach Using data from 631 survey respondents collected from Chinese cluster firms, this study uses structural equation modeling to test a moderated mediation model. Findings The results indicate that both structural and relational embeddedness within industrial clusters enhance firm resource orchestration capability, which in turn promotes exploratory and exploitative green innovation. Furthermore, network routines positively moderate the relationship between cluster firms’ structural and relational embeddedness and resource orchestration capability, while normative pressure strengthens the positive effect of resource orchestration capability on ambidextrous green innovation. Originality/value By unveiling the mediating role of resource orchestration capability and the moderating role of institutional factors, this study extends social network theory in green innovation research and clarifies how cluster-based mechanisms operate under a specific institutional environment.
Liu et al. (2026) studied this question.