Balancing Exploration and Exploitation in Technological Context: The Role of Strategic Flexibility

Exploration and exploitation represent two fundamentally different approaches to organizational learning, but recent literature has increasingly found the importance to achieve a balance between the two. Added with competency trap, we propose an integrated conceptual model which involves existing technological capability, existing technology base, strategic flexibility, technology exploitation and technology exploration. In this study, we emphasize the moderated role of strategic flexibility in balancing technology exploration and exploitation, and balancing the relations between existing technology base/capability and technological exploration/exploitation.