Untangling the Effects of Overexploration and Overexploitation on Organizational Performance: The Moderating Role of Environmental Dynamism†
Year: 2008
Type: article
Abstract: Because a firm's optimal knowledge search behavior is determined by unique firm and industry conditions, organizational performance should be contingent on the degree to which a firm's actual level of knowledge search deviates from the optimal level. It is thus hypothesized that deviation from the optimal search, in the form of either overexploitation or overexploration, is detrimental to organizational performance. Furthermore, the negative effect of search deviation on organizational performance varies with environmental dynamism; that is, overexploitation is expected to become more harmful, whereas overexploration becomes less so with an increase in environmental dynamism. The empirical analyses yield results consistent with these arguments. Implications for research and practice are correspondingly discussed.
Source: Journal of Management
Authors: Heli Wang, Jiatao Li
Institution: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Language: English
Subfield: Strategy and Management
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2149731923