Organizing for exploration and exploitation

Exploitation of current technologies and competences generates revenues in the present, while exploration of new technological options creates the basis for future revenues. Exploitation is needed for short-term survival, while exploration is needed for long-term survival. Between exploration and exploitation, a tension exists, which is one of the essential tensions in the management of innovation. To develop and maintain innovation strategies and organizational forms that facilitate both exploration and exploitation and that can cope with the tensions, is a major challenge for the management of innovation. The purpose of this paper is to give a succinct overview of relevant literature, and to draw the outline of a research project on the organization of exploration and exploitation in the field of biotechnology. The main research questions of this project are: Under which circumstances is the strategic choice to engage in multiple technological trajectories sensible? and: To what extent are ambidextrous organizational forms effective structures for firms pursuing a multiple technology strategy?