Exploratory and exploitative innovation: the moderating role of partner geographic diversity

The extended abstract of this article was originally presented at The 7th International Scientific Conference, European Union Future Perspectives: Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Economic Policy, Pula (Croatia), May 21–23, 2015.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to explore the effect of exploratory and exploitative innovation separately and ambidexterity premise simultaneously relating to firms’ innovation performance. To test these relationships, we applied a hierarchical linear regression analysis to a large sample of international organisations (by using the Community Innovation Survey [CIS] 2006 micro data). We show that the relationship between exploratory innovation and a firm’s innovation performance is moderated by geographically different partners. We found that ambidexterity premise in innovation context undermines innovation performance.

Keywords:

• Innovation
• ambidexterity
• exploration
• exploitation
• geographic partner diversity

JEL classifications:

• O30
• D74
• L20

Notes

The extended abstract of this article was originally presented at The 7th International Scientific Conference, European Union Future Perspectives: Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Economic Policy, Pula (Croatia), May 21–23, 2015.