Balancing Exploration and Exploitation in Alliance Formation

Abstract

Do firms balance exploration and exploitation in their alliance formation decisions and, if so, why and how? We argue that absorptive capacity and organizational inertia impose conflicting pressures for exploration and exploitation with respect to the value chain function of alliances, the attributes of partners, and partners' network positions. Although path dependencies reinforce either exploration or exploitation within each of these domains, we find that firms balance their tendencies to explore and exploit over time and across domains.