Thriving in the New: Implication of Exploration on Organizational Longevity

This study investigates the longevity implication of exploration. An analysis of 1980-1999 data from the hard disk drive industry suggests that exploitation to the exclusion of exploration generally undermines firms' long-term viability. However, this general pattern does not guarantee the long-term benefit of each individual exploration attempt. Depending on how long an exploration process overlaps an exploitation process, the longevity implication of exploration varies: If the temporal overlap is too long or too short, a firm tends to lose its longevity; however, if the temporal overlap remains at a moderate level, a firm can extend its longevity.