Solving the innovation dilemma by creating organizational think tanks

In business venturing, the simultaneous activity of searching for hitherto unknown opportunities while pursuing already identified opportunities gives rise to high-tension and contradictory processes. This innovation dilemma presents a key managerial challenge to corporate entrepreneurship. To this dilemma the authors apply the exploration/exploitation framework and argue that a balance of the divergent organizational and managerial needs of these two activities can be achieved more efficiently and effectively in a network-like structure of organizations. They take a design-oriented approach and, as a solution to the innovation dilemma, argue the case for a centre of explorative excellence as both focal point and mediator in an inter-organizational network, which they call an 'organizational think tank'.