Managing knowledge-related barriers to technological innovation through exploitative and explorative organisational strategies

This study uses data from a sample of 31,948 European innovating firms to examine the impact that knowledge-related barriers to technological innovation have on the link between the level of such innovation and firm performance, and, to investigate the role of “exploitative” and “explorative” organisational strategies in moderating such impact. Exploitative strategies are measured by the level of organisational innovations, and exploratory strategies are measured by the level of methods for fostering workplace creativity. Using moderated hierarchical regression, the results reveal a negative effect of the interaction between technological innovation and related knowledge constraints on firm performance. They also reveal that the negative interaction effect becomes positive at high levels of organisational innovations and creativity-fostering methods. The study findings thus indicate the need for managers of technologically innovative firms to implement both exploitative and explorative organisational strategies. Doing so could help minimise the negative effects of knowledge-related barriers to technological innovation, and in turn promote innovation-based competitiveness and business success.