Exploration and Exploitation Within and Across Organizations

Abstract

Jim March's framework of exploration and exploitation has drawn substantial interest from scholars studying phenomena such as organizational learning, knowledge management, innovation, organizational design, and strategic alliances. This framework has become an essential lens for interpreting various behaviors and outcomes within and across organizations. Despite its straightforwardness, this framework has generated debates concerning the definition of exploration and exploitation, and their measurement, antecedents, and consequences. We critically review the growing literature on exploration and exploitation, discuss various perspectives, raise conceptual and empirical concerns, underscore challenges for further development of this literature, and provide directions for future research.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the editors, Art Brief and Jim Walsh, for their thoughtful comments, as well as Kostas Grigoriou, Justin Jansen, Lori Rosenkopf, and Frank Rothaermel for their valuable feedback.