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The purpose of this paper is to examine the structural relationships among explorative learning strategy, improvisational creativity, compositional creativity, and innovation in information and communication technology small- and medium-sized enterprises (ICT-SMEs).

In total, 213 valid questionnaires from SMEs’ top management positions were evaluated to investigate the proposed model of the research empirically. As a methodological approach, partial least square (PLS) path modeling approach, a variance-based structural equation modeling was employed.

The statistical results imply that explorative learning has a positive impact on improvisational creativity and innovation while improvisational creativity has a positive influence on compositional creativity and innovation as well. Compositional creativity and innovation are also positively associated. Surprisingly, improvisational creativity mediates the relationship between explorative learning and innovation. Furthermore, PLS-multi group analysis reveals that heterogeneity exists in the collected data and number of employees is a moderating variable. The results of the research indicate that companies with number of employees between 51 and 100 are more creative and innovative in comparison with other groups. On the other hand, the positive relationship between explorative learning and compositional creativity was not supported in this research.

This study is one of the few research works in the realm of examining the structural relationship among explorative learning strategy, improvisational creativity, compositional creativity, and innovation in ICT-SMEs, regarding the number of employees as a moderating variable.

This study aims to examine the effects of international competitive strategies, i.e. cost leadership and differentiation, on export (market share and strategic) performance. This study further explores the roles of exploitative and exploratory organizational learning in the relationships between international competitive strategies and export performances. To fill research gaps, this study intends to provide guidance on how varied exploitative/exploratory organizational learning and cost leadership/differentiation strategy combinations would affect export performance. The outcomes of this study provide a new match and mis-match conceptualization to extant international competitive strategy and organizational learning literature.

This study selected New Zealand (NZ) exporting as the research setting because exporting plays such a vital role in NZ’s economy and NZ exporting firms have long been highly competitive in international markets (e.g. meat and dairy exporters), with the primary data collected through surveys conducted in 2010 and 2013. This study adopted a three-year lagged performance approach.

Cost leadership strategy has a positive effect on market share performance. This effect is enhanced by exploitative learning but dampened by exploratory learning. Cost leadership also has a positive effect on strategic performance, which is not affected by exploitative and exploratory learning. Differentiation strategy bears no relation to market share and strategic performance, even allowing for exploitative and exploratory learning. Collectively, the contingent role of organizational learning in the international competitive strategies and export performance framework is far more comprehensive than was expected.

This study reveals that a match between cost leadership strategy and exploitative learning may result in a superior market share. The configuration of differentiation strategy and exploitative learning and the integration of cost leadership strategy and exploratory learning are suggested as mis-matches, as these combinations would not lead to any significant and positive market share and strategic performance. Unexpectedly, the co-alliance of differentiation strategy and explorative learning is not suggested as a match, as it does not result in a superior market share and strategic performance. This latter outcome suggests that the differentiation strategy-export performance link may be stimulated by other moderating factors (e.g. business managerial ties).

While choosing an appropriate international competitive strategy, managers may use cost leadership over differentiation strategy to achieve successful export performance in both the market share and strategic perspectives. Export managers focusing on cost leadership strategy may further implement exploitative learning instead of explorative learning, when market share is vital. Meanwhile, they may note that explorative learning may not have a moderating effect on enhancing strategic performance through cost leadership. These points signify that exploitation of existing knowledge may be more effective than exploration of new knowledge for market share expansion when cost leadership strategy is devoted to exporting activities. Differentiation strategy, however, does not influence market share and strategic performance in exporting, even with an alignment of exploitative/exploratory learning. Managers are urged to pay attention to the mis-match of differentiation strategy and organizational learning when market share and strategic performance are the priorities in export performance evaluation.

This study contributes to the organizational learning literature by providing a new match and mis-match conceptualization relating to international competitive strategy and export performance. The new framework provides directions on when firms should use organizational learning to enhance their competitive strategies (a match scenario) and when they should not use it (a mis-match scenario). This study broadens the existing research that has mainly focused on alignment combinations such as organizational learning-internationalization strategy and organizational learning-social network.

This study aims to examine the moderating effects of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) on the relationship of exploitation and exploration strategies with export performance. Drawing on the current literature, this conceptual paper develops a framework that first links the exploitative and explorative strategies with the export performance. Later, propositions are developed to indicate different combinations of individual dimensions of EO as moderating factors to this relationship.

This is a conceptual paper which builds on prior conceptual and empirical management research.

The preliminary conceptual findings suggest that the exploitative strategy is valuable in the short run after new entry, while explorative strategy is significant in the long run only after new entry. For the moderating effects, a combination of high innovation, high proactiveness and high risk-taking may positively influence both the strategies with export performance. While low innovativeness but high proactiveness and high risk-taking is assumed to positively moderate the exploitative strategy and export performance relationship, a negative moderating role is seen for explorative strategy and export performance. Similarly, high innovativeness but low risk-taking and low proactiveness will negatively moderate the relationship between exploitative/explorative strategy and export performance.

The current literature warrants research on this topic. For example, literature lacks studies regarding a better understanding of the impact of export market exploitation and exploration on export performance. Further, the impact of EO on performance is well acknowledged in the literature, but their relative influence on the performance of exporting firms remains inconclusive.

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.

This study aims to explore how the co-created value arising from integrated solutions results in both, intended and spill-over effects.

The research uses a qualitative multi-level field study, with data from 12 respondents in 1 supplier firm and 29 respondents from 10 buying firms.

The resulting propositions suggest that co-created value developed through exploitative and emerging strategies, each may lead to both higher intended and spill-over effects. However, it appears that exploitative strategies are more effective in returning intended effects, whereas emerging strategies lead to higher spill-over effects.

The results are exploratory, obtained from a limited number of buyer companies. Concerns of external validity were traded off against opportunities to gain insights into a poorly understood phenomenon.

The paper contributes to the existing value co-creation literature by offering insights from integrated solutions, associated with the development of buyer and seller relationships. The resulting propositions suggest that co-created value developed through both exploitative and emerging strategies may each lead to both higher intended and spill-over effects. However, it appears that exploitative strategies are more effective in returning intended effects, whereas emerging strategies lead to higher spill-over effects.

This paper sets out, first, to integrate HR strategies into knowledge management (KM) systems; second, to examine the type of HR strategies to be pursued and third, it looks at the probable behaviour effects of such a strategy in the creation, distribution and use of knowledge.

The paper discusses recent literature on the link between KM and human resource management (HRM).

The HRM strategy and the general strategy of a firm make up the general KM strategies. Two were identified in this paper: exploitative strategy and explorative strategy. Both strategies have behaviour effects, which have some impact on the KM process. Thus, the exploitative strategy will put greater emphasis on knowledge storage, technical skills, as well as distributing explicit knowledge via IT solutions. This increases the risk that firms adopting such strategy will be locked into past design and to be unable to reach for future applications. Explorative strategy places greater weight on knowledge creation, as well as on human interaction to transfer tacit knowledge and use knowledge to increase innovation and new learning. Firms adopting such strategy tend to lack structure and processes to utilise the innovations into competitive advantages.

The analysis of the paper is based on literature review, therefore the concepts developed in the paper need empirical testing.

This paper attempts to integrate HRM into KM systems.

Since March (1991) presented his ideas on organizational learning, hundreds of empirical tests have been conducted on relationships among the activities of exploration, exploitation, ambidexterity, and firm performance. Despite continued interest in his ideas, there has not been a systematic assessment of extant research to reveal whether, and to what extent, these activities relate to firm performance. This study uses meta-analysis to take a next step by aggregating results of 117 studies from more than 21,000 firms. I find strong performance effects for exploration and exploitation, but contrary to received theory, I discover ambidexterity yields weaker effects than a focus on either exploration or exploitation. Thus, I leverage these findings to offer future research opportunities.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the critical success factors for sustainable e‐learning in an e‐learning ecosystem framework. Three critical components of the e‐learning ecosystem including principles and methods, processes and systems, and substance and content are considered based on a comprehensive review of the relevant literature in e‐learning.

Systematic interviews are conducted with experts in e‐learning for identifying the critical success factors to sustainable e‐learning within an e‐learning ecosystem framework. This leads to the development of an e‐learning success model that describes the underlying relationship between and among the identified critical success factors.

A comprehensive analysis of the interview results shows that there are several barriers to the effective adoption of the proposed e‐learning success model for improving the effectiveness of e‐learning. These barriers include a lack of understanding of the technologies behind various pedagogies, insufficiencies of the popular learning management systems, and the sustainability of the learning objects repositories.

The paper highlights the criticality of synergizing the three components of e‐learning ecosystems namely pedagogies, technologies and management of learning resources for achieving a sustainable e‐learning success.

A better understanding of these barriers would help e‐learning stakeholders develop appropriate strategies and policies for the implementation of the proposed e‐learning success model towards creating a sustainable e‐learning environment.

Specific contributions of this research to the entire e‐learning community are discussed with recommendations for concerted policy measures to eliminate the identified barriers in the process of adopting the developed e‐learning success model.

In the early industrial age which with high intensity of machine and labor, using financial measurement index was good enough to tie in company’s mechanization and philosophy of management and been in efficiency. But being comply with “New Economic age,” a new economic environment is full of knowledge and information, the enterprise competition had changed from tangible assets, plants to intangible innovation ability of knowledge. As recognizing the new tendency by enterprise, they value gradually the growth and influence from learning. Practice of organization learning not only needs firm structure and be in coordination with both hardware and software, but also needs an affect measurement model to offer enterprise to estimate learning performance. It’s a good instrument of financial performance measure mold in the past years, But it’s for measuring the past, couldn’t formulate enterprise trend to future, hard to estimate investment for future, such as development of products, organization learning, knowledge management etc, as which intangible assets and knowledge ability just the key factors of being win around competition environment in the future. In 1992, Kaplan and Norton brought up Balance Scorecard (BSC) on Harvard Business Review, as an instrument helping enterprise to measure performance, which is being considered to be a most influence management instrument. It added non‐financial index such as customer, internal process and learning growth besides traditional financial index, as offering enterprise an index to measure and manage intangible assets and intellectual property. As being aware of organization learning is hard to be ignored in the new economic age, this research is based on learning and growth of BSC, and citing one national material company try to let the most difficult measurement performance of organization learning, to be estimate through BSC, analyze of factor and individual case, to discuss the company how to make the related strategy and vision of organization learning to develop learning and growth of the structure of BSC, subject the matter of out put factors to be discussed, and measure the outcomes as a result of research. The research affect offers (1) the base implement procedure of carrying out BSC; (2) the reference of formulating measurement index while enterprise using BSC to estimate performance of organization learning; (3) the possibility bottleneck maybe forcing while carrying out BSC, to be an improvement or preventive for enterprise.

Drawing on the knowledge-based view of the firm (KBV) and Dynamic Marketing Capabilities (DMC), this paper examines the role of key internationalization knowledge absorption processes as learning strategies, namely market exploitation and market exploration in enabling internationalization knowledge absorption in export-oriented firms involved in manufacturing goods or producing electrical/engineering products.

The data were gathered via a cross-sectional survey using a questionnaire (i.e. n = 315) on a sample of Bangladeshi manufacturing firms exporting in US and European markets.

The findings suggest that an export firm's internationalization absorption strategies are positively associated with export performance. The authors also found that the mediator, DMC, strengthened the relationship between knowledge absorption and export performance. Moreover, the findings of moderated mediation model revealed that the direct and indirect effects of market exploitation on export performance are more prevalent when competitive intensity is low. While competitive intensity is high, the direct and indirect effects of market exploration on export performance are more prevalent.

By introducing a higher-level dynamic marketing capability approach and linking it to ambidexterity constructs (learning though exploration and exploitation), export business professionals should appreciate the full spectrum of mid-level marketing capabilities they need to develop alongside their exploration and exploitation strategies to improve their export performance. This study directs attention to the competitive intensity conditions the exporting firm is facing. When export business professionals are faced with high-level of competitive intensity in the market, they should establish a clear focus on their exploration learning strategies if they wish to enhance their export performance.

The authors contribute to two broad domains of literature: organizational learning and DMC strategy. The study results show that how the two components of international ambidexterity as organizational learning constructs (i.e. market exploration and exploitation) influence knowledge management processes within firms through a firm's possession of a fine configuration of higher-level marketing capability. This study also theoretically and empirically examines how higher-level DMC strategy can mediate the consequence of international knowledge absorption mechanism on firm export performance. From a practical perspective, this study provides useful lessons for exporting firms wishing to enhance their performance.