How Firms Undertake Organizational Changes to Shift to More-exploratory Strategies: A Process Perspective

Jane Bjørn Vedel*, Olga Kokshagina

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Abstract

Firms’ organization of exploratory research has interested scholars of both research policy and organization theory, yet we still know too little about how firms undertake organizational changes to shift to more-exploratory strategies. Adopting a process perspective, we explore this question through a longitudinal, comparative case study of a Danish pharmaceutical firm and a French-Italian semiconductor firm. We demonstrate how firms adjust their organizational structures to increase exploration, a process of constantly addressing countervailing organizational and interorganizational demands by deploying, combining, and changing balancing mechanisms at the organizational and managerial levels. Moreover, our findings show that firms’ different organizational structures affect their adaptations to exploratory outcomes. These findings advance theory because they illuminate the dynamic interplay between firms’ adjustments of organizational structures and their movements toward more exploration. We use a recursive process model to theorize our findings.
Original languageEnglish
Article number104118
JournalResearch Policy
Volume50
Issue number1
Number of pages11
ISSN0048-7333
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2021

Bibliographical note

Published online 18 September 2020.

Keywords

  • Balancing mechanisms
  • Exploration-exploitation
  • Organizational adaptation
  • Organizational structures
  • Process perspective

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