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Boundary-spanning exploration through establishing alliances is an effective strategy to explore technologies beyond local search in innovating firms. The purpose of this paper is to argue that it is useful to make a distinction in boundary-spanning exploration between what a firm learns from its alliance partners (explorative learning from partners (ELP)) and what it learns from other organisations (explorative learning from non-partners (ELN)).

The authors contend that alliances play a role in both types of exploration. More specifically, the authors discern three types of alliances (inside ties, clique-spanning ties and outside ties) based on their role vis-à-vis existing alliance cliques. Clique members are highly embedded, and breaking out of the cliques through clique-spanning and outside alliances is crucial to improving explorative learning. Thereafter, the authors claim that clique-spanning ties and outside ties have a different effect on ELN and ELP.

The empirical analysis of the “application specific integrated circuits” industry indicates that inside ties have negligible effects on both types of explorative learning. Clique-spanning ties have a positive effect on ELP, but not on ELN. The reverse is true for outside ties. The results show that research on explorative learning should devote greater attention to the various roles alliance partners and types of alliances play in advancing technological exploration.

The literature only emphasises the learning from partners, focussing mainly on accessing their technology. In sum, alliance partners play different roles in exploration, and their network position influences the role they are able to play.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for understanding the learning outcomes of strategic alliances.

On the basis of two dimensions of any strategic alliance – that is, similarity or dissimilarity of contribution of partners and explorative or exploitative nature of alliance – the author proposes a framework that recognizes four types of learning outcomes.

The distinction of four types of alliance enables the author to identify their distinctive characteristics and learning outcomes.

The paper increases the awareness of managers about the learning outcomes of strategic alliances, which helps managers to consider intended learning outcomes not only in planning, managing and evaluating any individual alliance but also in managing the alliance portfolio.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how universities' learning behavior (explorative or exploitative) and network structure (weak or strong inter‐organizational ties) can affect their capability to collect and diffuse knowledge, and thus to act as knowledge gatekeepers.

The research methodology is based on the longitudinal study (from 2000 to 2007) of three UK universities (University of Cambridge, London's Global University, and Imperial College London), located in the area of London and selected on the basis of their knowledge mobility. In particular, to evaluate the knowledge mobility for each university, the paper considers the collaborative R&D relationships established by each university, in terms of joint‐patents registered at the European Patent Office (EPO).

The analysis has revealed that the universities' knowledge mobility is positively affected by both the explorative learning behavior and the establishment of strong inter‐organizational ties. Moreover, results have shown that an increase of the explorative speed can entail a less positive effect of the exploration on the universities' knowledge mobility, since they can become less able to consolidate and implement the acquired new knowledge.

On the basis of these results, the present research provides interesting implications. In fact, recognizing the importance of explorative learning mechanisms, universities should enlarge and diversify their competencies and technological bases in order to be more effective knowledge sources and gatekeepers. Nevertheless, this shift towards new technologies and scientific fields should occur gradually, for instance towards more similar and contiguous technologies, so guaranteeing the necessary strengthening of skills and capabilities. Referring to the universities' network structure, the research suggests the importance of strong inter‐organizational ties as mechanisms that enable the transfer of knowledge. Hence, universities should promote the formation of stable and long‐lasting alliances and collaborations for favouring the creation of a trustworthy environment where knowledge can be exchanged and innovations rise.

The study contributes to the existing literature on knowledge gatekeepers, identifying its main performance, measuring it, and analyzing the impact exerted by two factors, as learning behavior and network structure.

The purpose of this paper is to address the following question: how managerial ties impact firm business model innovation (BMI) in the context of transition economies.

The authors present a conceptual model that links managerial ties, organizational learning (explorative and exploitative learning), opportunity recognition and BMI together.

This study finds that managerial ties take effect through two paths: one direct path and one indirect path. First, managerial ties can impact BMI directly through exploitative and explorative learning. Second, managerial ties can impact BMI indirectly through explorative learning and opportunity recognition.

First, firm managers from transition economies should learn to reinvent their business models by taking full advantage of managerial ties. Second, firm managers should take appropriate actions to transfer managerial ties into BMI.

This study contributes to existing literature in two major ways. First, this study enriches literature on the antecedents to BMI from a social network perspective. Second, this study opens the “black box” between managerial ties and BMI in the context of transition economies.

Despite extensive published research into the relationship between open innovation (OI) activities and performance, the nature and direction of the relationship remain inconclusive. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship as to how firms’ inbound and outbound OI activities, as well as their interaction influence incremental and radical innovation performance. The authors also consider the potentially mediating roles of knowledge learning and organizational capabilities in such a relationship.

To investigate this relationship, data were collected from a cross-industry survey of 304 leading Taiwanese-based firms. Three-stage least square analysis was employed to test the model.

Analyses reveal that knowledge learning and organizational capabilities mediate the OI activities-innovation performance relationship. In addition, a firm focussing on inbound activities enhances its radical innovation performance, but hinders its incremental innovation performance, while focussing on outbound activities produces the opposite effects. Among the findings, it is worth emphasizing that the effect of the interaction between inbound and outbound activities on innovation performance can be counter-productive.

The findings demonstrate that existing studies only partially explain the effects of OI activities on innovation performance. Understanding how OI activities influence innovation performance will facilitate more informed decision making, leading to more effective use of OI activities.

The results suggest that managers need to consider knowledge learning and organizational capabilities in order to fully capture the potential effects of OI activities. Managers also need to be aware of the limitations of OI activities.

The theoretical model presented here offers a timely contribution to the theory base underpinning the development of OI activities for innovation performance.

This paper aims to investigate the curvilinear effects of firms’ market learning on radical innovation and the moderation effects of the focal firms’ horizontal ties and vertical ties.

This study uses regression analysis with the survey data from 303 Chinese firms.

Explorative/exploitative market learning has an inverted U-shaped/U-shaped effect on radical innovation. The effects of explorative market learning on radical innovation increase when firms have strong horizontal ties, but decrease when firms have strong vertical ties. The opposite is true for the effects of exploitative market learning.

This study uses unilateral data to examine the moderation effects of the focal firms’ vertical and horizontal ties on the market learning-radical innovation links. Future research that conducted in the dyadic-paradigm would be preferable to test the generalizability of this research and address the potential changes.

The value of the current study centers on its integrated framework that incorporates organizational learning theory and the social network perspective to account for radical innovation. The integrative view helps us to interpret the curvilinear effects of market learning on radical innovation and outlines the moderation mechanisms of horizontal ties and vertical ties.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how multinational enterprises (MNEs) manage human resources (HR) in explorative and exploitative alliances in smart city projects (SCPs).

In this paper, the authors adopt an explorative and qualitative approach based on multiple case studies thanks to the interviews with 21 smart city managers of MNEs who are deeply involved in SCPs.

The authors found that MNEs use many different partnerships and “temporal separation” in many cities all around the world in order to maximize the benefits of both exploration and exploitation. According to the aim of the project, MNEs implemented different HR practices intentionally targeted toward managing social relations among internal and external employees involved in SCPs.

The authors highlighted that MNEs tend to develop different ties among employees and external partners and to use different HR practices according to the nature and to the aim of the alliances. Thus, the development of human resource management systems becomes crucial in supporting organizational ambidexterity through alliances.

This paper gives useful insights in improving the effectiveness of MNEs in SCPs. Due to the business opportunities arising from the application of ICT and technological innovation to urban services, MNEs are becoming an important player in smart cities. Increasing the effectiveness of the SCPs leads faster to more economically, socially and environmentally sustainable cities.

The development of alliances has a key role in strengthening and complementing firms’ exploration and exploitation agendas in SCPs. Thus, this paper provides guidelines to MNEs in order to adapt HR practices and to rethink the role of HR within and across corporate boundaries in an emergent context of analysis.

Alliances are an increasingly common way of organizing the uncertain exploration phase of radical innovation. It may, however, be argued that there is inherent tension between the logic of alliances and the logic of innovation. Whereas innovation is generally argued to require flexibility, political protection and extensive communication, the commonly mentioned key characteristics of alliances are detailed contractual regulation, political struggles and limited information exchange. Based on an in‐depth case study of a largely successful alliance for innovation between a European bank and a European telecommunications operator, this paper argues that the tensions between an innovation logic and an alliance logic may be overcome by creating a multilevel governance structure for the alliance, with a learning agenda on both the operational and strategic levels. The different levels of the structure are described and their contribution to the success of the alliance discussed.

Research in the area of business model innovation (BMI) has focused on theoretical and exploratory discussions, thereby creating a lack of empirical evidence on the role of top management in BMI. The current study focuses on this research gap and provides empirical evidence by studying the impact of top managers’ managerial skills, managerial ties and entrepreneurial skills on BMI. It also seeks to explore the mediating influence of explorative and exploitative learning.

Data were collected from 200 respondents from top multinational firms in India covering six sectors, which was analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The findings reveal significant positive relationships of BMI with managerial skills, entrepreneur skills and managerial ties, and these relationships are found to be mediated by exploitative and explorative learning.

Given the increasing importance of BMI to organizational success, the study has highlighted that top managers’ skills and ties favorably influence BMI. Organizations can make related investments in training and capacity building by instituting appropriate programs in their organizations. In addition, organizations can exercise caution during recruitment by recruiting and selecting managers in top management teams who excel in managerial skills.

This study is one of the few to validate a comprehensive measurement model that highlights the influence of managerial skills, entrepreneur skills and managerial ties on BMI, explaining these associations with the mediating role of exploitative and explorative learning.