Do Incumbents Really Fail to Innovate? The Role of Exploratory Search and Structural Contexts
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2009-10-13
Author(s)
Abstract
Incumbents often experience organizational rigidities when innovating. Prior studies advise these firms to create a single organizational entity outside the mainstream organization that encompasses all exploratory activities. We, however, argue the reverse: incumbents following this design approach become trapped in specific types of exploratory search, thus failing to pursue others. Based on an inductive study, we identify the type of exploratory search as a task contingency for managers' choice of structural context configurations. We find that successful incumbents assign different types of exploratory supply-side and demand-side search to different structural contexts with distinct levels of differentiation and autonomy.
Language
English
Keywords
Innovation
Incumbents
Organization Design
Exploration
Search
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Book title
Finalist for Best Paper for Practice Implications Award
Event Title
29th Strategic Management Society (SMS) Annual International Conference
Event Location
Washington DC
Event Date
11.-14.10.2009
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
56177