활용(Exploitation)과 탐험(Exploration)에 대한 실증연구 결과가 제기하는 개념적 이슈와 향후 연구과제

Since the publication of March (1991) seminal work, the terms exploration and exploitation have increasingly come to dominate organizational analyses of technological innovation, organization design, organizational learning, competitive advantage and organizational survival. Despite growing use of those constructs, the results of empirical study on exploration and exploitation remain in inconsistency. Although the reason of inconsistency may come from diverse reasons, this study suggests that the reason of inconsistency starts with the conceptual definition issues. Therefore, we review 72 literatures of exploration and exploitation to identify the reasons for the inconsistency and suggest 4 reasons. 1) Whether researcher define exploration and exploitation as input or output concept, 2) While the degree of exploration and exploitation from focal firm may vary, criteria of exploration and exploitation may not be consistent with the actual degree according to the researcher's orientation, 3) the definition of exploration and exploitation may vary based on the context of specific empirical studies, 4) the studies following March which brings concept of exploration and exploitation deviating greatly from original definitions might be the reasons for the inconsistency in exploration and exploitation studies. Basing on those reasons of the inconsistency, this study suggests the important issues on exploration and exploitation studies and the guidelines for future empirical studies.