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The aim of this paper is to consider how exploitative and exploratory team processes contribute to adaptive and innovative outcomes. The paper integrates the team learning and team adaptation literature and examines factors that stimulate and support exploitative and exploratory processes in interdisciplinary and homogeneous teams. This has implications for team learning research and facilitation that fosters adaptation and innovation.

The paper reviews how teams learn to be exploitative and exploratory and the extent to which adaptive and innovative outcomes ensue. The paper suggests the value of teams understanding how different conditions (environment, leadership, member characteristics, and team composition) affect team members' interactions as they learn and apply exploitative and exploratory processes to produce adaptive and/or innovative outcomes.

Teams learn frames of reference for being exploitative and exploratory influenced by environmental conditions, leadership, particularly leadership that creates psychological safety, and team member characteristics and team. Interdisciplinary team composition and resulting possible subgroup formation pose challenges for exploitative and exploratory teams.

Future research should study teams over time to observe subgroup formation and integration, and facilitation by leaders, team members, and group dynamics professionals to support exploratory and exploitative frames and the emergence of adaptations and innovations.

Teams may be more successful in implementing innovations when they have learned how to weave between exploratory and exploitative frames of behavior.

The paper applies exploitative and exploratory processes to teams to increase their capacity to produce adaptive and innovative outcomes.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of team psychological capital (PsyCap) on team innovation. The study also examines the mediating role of team learning, including exploratory and exploitative learning, in team innovation.

A sample of 272 team leaders of firms in Vietnam was surveyed to validate the measures via confirmatory factor analysis and to test the model and hypotheses using structural equation modeling.

The results demonstrate that team PsyCap has a positive effect on team innovation. Further, team exploratory learning mediates the relationship between team PsyCap and team innovation; however, team exploitative learning does not. Although team exploitative learning is explained by team PsyCap, it does not enhance team innovation.

The study findings suggest that, to enjoy a high level of team exploratory and exploitative learning and innovation, firms should develop team PsyCap. This could be undertaken by implementing leader–subordinate mentoring programs, together with creating a social context that helps in interacting and communicating among team members.

This study is among the first to examine the role of team PsyCap in team exploratory and exploitative learning and innovation, adding further insight to the literature on innovation at the team level.

Intellectual capital (IC) has been suggested to be a means by which firms develop capabilities that enhance competitive advantage. There is, however, a paucity of empirical research linking IC with innovation in construction firms, leaving the IC–innovation link in such environments unclear. The purpose of this paper is to advance understanding of the relationships between IC components and strategic exploratory and exploitative innovation in construction contractor firms.

The sample comprised 135 management personnel from construction contractor firms in Hong Kong. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey using validated scales in the literature which were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis. Hierarchical linear regression was used to test the hypotheses while partial least squares structural equation modelling was used for post hoc analysis.

Social capital (SC) and organisational capital (OC) each have significant positive linear effects on exploratory and exploitative innovation, while human capital (HC) has no direct linear effect on either innovation type. HC, however, affects both exploratory and exploitative innovation through SC or OC. None of the three IC dimensions has a significant quadratic effect on exploratory or exploitative innovation. The findings suggest that in construction contractor firms increases in the accumulation of SC and OC are associated with proportional increases in exploratory and exploitative innovation.

Despite the growth of studies connecting IC to innovation, the link between IC and exploratory and exploitative innovation has focussed on linear effects in units or on radical innovation outcomes. This study makes a novel contextual contribution by exploring both linear and quadratic effects of IC dimensions on strategic exploratory and exploitative innovation processes in construction contractor firms. The insights contribute to advance knowledge on the relationship between IC and innovation categories in different industrial settings.

Existing research on innovation has mainly focused on how to promote technological innovation in megaprojects and management innovation (MI) in megaprojects is still an unknown research field. The purposes of this study are to examine the effect of MI on megaproject performance and how the top management team (TMT) regulatory focus affects the use of MI in projects. At the same time, the moderating effects of project uncertainties are also tested.

On the basis of an explorative/exploitative ambidextrous analysis framework, this study divides MI into two dimensions: explorative and exploitative MI, and integrates the theoretical perspectives of the TMT regulatory focus and project uncertainties into a research model. Taking 314 responses from megaprojects’ TMTs in China as research data, this study empirically tests the above model.

Results show that exploratory MI has a U-shaped relationship with megaproject performance; whereas exploitative MI has an inverted U-shaped relationship with megaproject performance. The TMT promotion focus has a positive effect on exploratory and exploitative MI; and the TMT prevention focus has a negative effect on exploratory MI but has a positive effect on exploitative MI. Project uncertainties have a positive moderating effect on the positive relationship between TMT promotion focus and exploratory MI, whereas it has a negative moderating effect on the negative relationship between the TMT prevention focus and exploratory MI.

By empirically measuring the relationship between two types of MIs and megaproject performance, this study clarifies the differential mechanism of the effect of different MIs on megaproject performance. This study also examines the MI of megaprojects from the perspective of the TMT regulatory focus and expounds how changes in uncertainties affect the relationship between the TMT regulatory focus and MI.

The aim of this paper is to highlight the impact of distributed leadership (DL) on exploitative and exploratory innovations through the mediating effects of organizational trust (OT) and tacit and explicit knowledge sharing (KS).

Focusing on a quantitative approach, an empirical study was performed within a sample of information and communication technology Tunisian firms. The data collected was analyzed through the Partial Least Squares (PLS) method.

Findings revealed that DL is a driver of tacit and explicit KS, and exploitative and exploratory innovations. It also highlighted that tacit KS is associated with these two types of innovation. In this line, results showed that tacit KS plays a mediating effect between DL and exploitative and exploratory innovations. Moreover, our research highlighted that DL has a positive impact on OT that in turn boosts tacit and explicit KS.

This paper investigates the links between DL and exploitative and exploratory innovations within knowledge intensive firms (KIFs) that have never been studied in the literature within the context of business firms. This paper pioneers the examination of the mediating roles of explicit and tacit KS and OT in these links as well. This paper highlights the importance of DL for KIFs and sheds the light on how this collectivist approach of leadership creates an atmosphere of trust and fosters tacit and explicit KS to boost exploitative and exploratory innovations.

The purpose of this paper is to advance new insights into how internal and external social capital (SC) facets influence exploratory and exploitative innovation directly, and indirectly through absorptive capability (AC), by drawing on the relational and knowledge-based views.

The paper empirically tests the developed model using 135 survey responses from managers in construction contractor firms. Data were factor analysed, and path estimates determined using partial least squares structural equation modelling to test the hypotheses.

The results reveal that each social capital (SC) facet has direct benefits for both exploratory and exploitative innovation. The findings also show a mix of full and partial mediation paths between the facets of SC and innovation types through AC.

Extant research linking SC facets with innovation categories is fragmented. Added to this fragmentation is the dearth of studies linking both intra-firm and inter-firm SC with exploratory and exploitative innovation in firms. This paper makes a novel contribution by testing a model of the direct and indirect links (through AC) between internal and external SC and both exploratory and exploitative innovation in the context of construction contractor firms. The findings show how both facets of SC are necessary for exploratory and exploitative innovation. It reveals the types of relationships and capabilities necessary for specific innovation objectives.

The purpose of this paper is to further understand the joint effect of project‐level exploratory and exploitative learning in new product development. It aims to examine the complicated relationships among exploratory learning, exploitative learning and new product performance at a single project level. In addition, it seeks to shed light on the contextual effects of a firm's market orientation on the relationship between joint occurrence of both learning activities and new product development performance.

The paper is based on a questionnaire survey/analysis of a sample of 298 projects from high‐tech firms in Taiwan.

The findings suggest that the joint occurrence of both learning activities has a positive effect on new product performance and depends upon a high level of one learning activity coupled with a small dose of the other. Drawing on cultural and behavioral perspectives of market orientation, the results also indicate that market orientation may enhance the joint effect of both learning activities on new product performance.

This paper offers insight to project managers with regard to the importance of rationally mixing with exploratory and exploitative learning during new product development. Furthermore, the study argues that market orientation is an alternative of organizational design that fosters the positive joint effect of both learning behaviors.

The results empirically support the theoretical argument that a high‐low matching of exploratory and exploitative learning can enhance performance at the level of a single project. The study provides a multiple‐level framework to understand how the firm‐level MO strengthens the positive effects of joint occurrence of project‐level exploratory and exploitative learning activities during new product development.

Existing studies have paid less attention to the impact of knowledge accumulation on digital transformation and its boundary conditions. Hence, this study aims to investigate the effects of ambidextrous knowledge accumulation on manufacturing digital transformation under the moderation of dynamic capability.

This study divides knowledge accumulation into exploratory and exploitative knowledge accumulation and divides dynamic capability into alliance management capability and new product development capability. To clarify the relationship among ambidextrous knowledge accumulation, dynamic capability and manufacturing digital transformation, the authors collect data from 421 Chinese listed manufacturing enterprises from 2016 to 2020 and perform analysis by multiple hierarchical regression method, heterogeneity test and robustness analysis.

The empirical results show that both exploratory and exploitative knowledge accumulation can significantly promote manufacturing digital transformation. Keeping ambidextrous knowledge accumulation in parallel is more conducive than keeping single-dimensional knowledge accumulation. Besides, dynamic capability positively moderates the relationship between ambidextrous knowledge accumulation and manufacturing digital transformation. Moreover, the heterogeneity test shows that the impact of ambidextrous knowledge accumulation and dynamic capabilities on manufacturing digital transformation varies widely across different industry segments or different regions.

First, this paper shifts attention to the role of ambidextrous knowledge accumulation in manufacturing digital transformation and expands the connotation and extension of knowledge accumulation. Second, this study reveals that dynamic capability is a vital driver of digital transformation, which corroborates the previous findings of dynamic capability as an important driver and contributes to enriching the knowledge management literature. Third, this paper provides a comprehensive micro measurement of ambidextrous knowledge accumulation and digital transformation based on the development characteristics of the digital economy era, which provides a theoretical basis for subsequent research.

In order to explore the role of enterprise social network (ESN), this study examines how the different dimensions of ESN use – within teams and across teams – facilitate knowledge acquisition in organizations and how knowledge acquisition, in turn, impacts exploitative and exploratory innovation performance.

This study applied the survey approach to collect a valid sample of 150 Chinese companies that had innovation activities and were using ESN. The partial least squares (PLS) technique was used for data analysis to test the research model and hypotheses.

ESN use within teams has a positive impact on knowledge depth and knowledge breadth, and ESN use across teams has a positive impact on knowledge depth. Knowledge depth and knowledge breadth are both beneficial for innovation performance. The two types of ESN use have different impacts on knowledge depth and knowledge breadth; moreover, knowledge depth and knowledge breadth have different impacts on innovation performance. Specifically, the impacts of ESN use within teams and across teams on exploitative innovation performance are mediated by knowledge depth; the impact of ESN use within teams on exploratory innovation performance is mediated by knowledge breadth.

This paper can enhance the understanding of the importance of ESN use and ESN's role in facilitating knowledge acquisition and innovation performance.

The study aims to provide suggestions for project-based firms (PBFs) to create value through the development of social capital, collaborative environment and organisational learning (exploratory & exploitative learning). In this regard, a conceptual model is proposed that examines the interrelations between social capital, collaborative environment and exploratory & exploitative learning in the context of PBFs.

A semi-systematic literature review focussed on interrelations between social capital, exploratory & exploitative learning and collaborative environment was undertaken. Top ranked journals and highly relevant journal articles in the management domain were considered for the review. To analyse literature, the content analysis technique incorporating NVIVO 12 software was adopted.

Conceptual model suggests that social capital positively affects exploratory & exploitative learning through collaborative environment in PBFs. Three dimensions of social capital (network ties, trust and shared goals) create collaborative environment and collaborative environment enhances organisational learning in PBFs across different levels. Ultimately, social capital, collaborative environment and exploratory & exploitative learning contribute to value creation in PBFs.

Although the relationship between social capital and exploratory & exploitative learning has been researched previously, findings remain inconsistent. This study provides an alternative perspective to discuss this relationship with the proposed mediating construct: collaborative environment. Considering the context of PBFs, a conceptual model was developed to explain the interrelations between social capital, collaborative environment and learning. This study especially discusses collaborative environment as a value creation factor.