The Handbook of Technology and Innovation Management

6.2. Toward an Integrative Framework

Balancing the dual processes of exploration and exploitation is a constant struggle for firms and their managers. As a result, innovation researchers across a wide variety of theoretical disciplines and empirical focuses have offered insights on the subject. The above review of the current literature shows that these interpretations can be categorized into two approaches: simultaneous and sequential. Given these rival interpretations, several new questions arise. One is how to reconcile the two approaches, which are based on fundamentally different theoretical perspectives on balance. Another question is how to resolve empirical findings that offer support for both interpretations and show that both approaches can support and stimulate innovation. Third, it is unclear which types of challenges underlie the successful implementation of each approach. Simultaneous and sequential approaches demonstrate different prescriptions for stimulating innovation, and are likely to present distinct managerial challenges as well. In this section, we propose a framework that begins to integrate the two approaches.

6.2.1. Integrated model of balance

One approach to resolving an apparent contradiction between simultaneous and sequential approaches is to take into account that organizations face a spectrum of different competitive environments. Since early contingency theory, scholars have pointed out that successful organizations create a fit with their environmental ...