EXPLORATION AND EXPLOITATION IN ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: March, James G.
• 署名单位: Stanford University
• 刊物名称: ORGANIZATION SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1047-7039
• DOI: 10.1287/orsc.2.1.71
• 发表日期: 1991
• 页码: 71-87
• 关键词: organizational learning; risk taking; KNOWLEDGE AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

摘要

This paper considers the relation between the exploration of new possibilities and the exploitation of old certainties in organizational learning. It examines some complications in allocating resources between the two, particularly those introduced by the distribution of costs and benefits across time and space, and the effects of ecological interaction. Two general situations involving the development and used of knowledge in organizations are modeled. The first is the case of mutual learning between members of an organization and an organizational code. The second is the case of learning and competitive advantage in competition for primacy. The paper develops an argument that adaptive processes, by refining exploitation more rapidly than exploration, are likely to become effective in the short run but self-destructive in the long run. The possibility that certain common organizational practices ameliorate that tendency is assessed.