Managing the exploitation-exploration tradeoff: how leaders balance incremental and discontinuous innovation
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explain how leaders balance exploitation (incremental innovation) and exploration (discontinuous innovation).
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative study with 11 senior leaders in Australian Defence Force.
Findings
The study identifies a number of factors that leaders take into account when deciding whether to focus on exploitation or on exploration.
Originality/value
The study concludes that transactional leadership is appropriate in the context of exploitation, while transformational leadership is appropriate in the context of exploration.
Keywords
Citation
Baškarada, S. and Watson, J. (2017), "Managing the exploitation-exploration tradeoff: how leaders balance incremental and discontinuous innovation", Development and Learning in Organizations, Vol. 31 No. 4, pp. 13-16. https://doi.org/10.1108/DLO-10-2016-0096
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017, Commonwealth of Australia.