Does One Entrepreneurial Culture Fit All? Making Sense of Opportunity Exploration and Exploitation

摘要

Opportunity exploration and exploitation are two heterogeneous entrepreneurial activities that require different sets resources. Firms must strike a subtle balance between exploration and exploitation for the purpose of successful innovation. However, the question still remains as to the role of firm culture in resolving the paradox of opportunity exploration and exploitation. The paper focuses on two contrasting aspects of the entrepreneurial culture: organizational diversity and shared vision. Organizational diversity enables divergent learning that is much needed in opportunity exploration, whilst shared vision promotes convergent learning that enables opportunity exploitation. The paper contributes to the corporate and strategic entre-preneurship literatures by explicating how firm culture helps to resolve the paradox of opportunity exploration and exploitation en route to successful innovation.