Balancing Exploration and Exploitation: a Literature Review and Unanswered Questions

The present research reviews the managerial literature concerning the balance between exploration and exploitation. With this regard, 56 empirical studies published on 19 journals have been selected and analyzed. Papers cover multiple research issues, adopt several methodological approaches, such as case study, econometric, and simulation techniques, and are distinguished according to the level of analysis: individual, single organization, or interorganizational context. Each of these research streams is discussed presenting the papers in terms of methodology and results. Finally, some unanswered questions and promising directions for future researches are provided.