Structural holes, exploratory innovation and exploitative innovation

Abstract

Purpose

Existing research has demonstrated that the innovation implications of structural holes are inconsistent. The diverse and broad resources associated with structural holes facilitate innovation. On the contrary, brokerage will also hinder trust and increase the opportunism behaviors among partners, which will damage innovation. Inspired by the conflicting conclusions, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the roles of structural holes on exploratory innovation and exploitative innovation.

Design/methodology/approach

To test the model, the paper used a panel of 305 US computer focal firms and 6,894 alliances from the period spanning 1993 to 2004, and adopted the Heckman two-stage selection procedure in predicting the results.

Findings

The results show that structural holes help firms to develop exploratory innovation while negatively impacting exploitative innovation.

Originality/value

This study offers precise insights on inconsistent understandings between structural holes and innovation by differentiating exploratory innovation from exploitative innovation. Furthermore, it contributes to the burgeoning literature on exploration and exploitation from the network perspective.

Citation

Zang, J. (2018), "Structural holes, exploratory innovation and exploitative innovation", Management Decision, Vol. 56 No. 8, pp. 1682-1695. https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-05-2017-0485