Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed : The Effect of Triadic Network Ties on Exploitative and Exploratory Learning

The mechanism of learning is central to the understanding of company's ambidexterity. Drawing on social network theory, the notion of strong and weak ties in serving different learning needs has become central to inter-organizational learning. While various studies have focused on the effects of dyadic ties, so far, limited research has examined the effect social triads have on exploitative and exploratory learning. This paper seeks to critically examine the effects an organization's direct strong and weak network ties have on its learning behavior in consideration of underlying, independent ties amongst the respective network partners. The main contribution of this article is demonstrated by proposing a 2-by-2 matrix on the cross-fertilization effects.