Exploration and Exploitation of Good Practices by Technology Parks: Empirical Findings from Poland

Abstract

The aim of this article is to identify exploratory and exploitative learning of technology parks (TPs) by implementing new and using existing good practices by these organisations. The subject matter of good practices in TPs was chosen because of the practical importance of TPs in the context of current economic climate in which enterprises revise business models as well as seek new opportunities and their significance for economic growth policies in a situation where the government recognises the need to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and micro enterprises being present or potential tenants of TPs in Poland. Analysis of paths for learning good practices by the TPs is a valuable scientific venture, regardless of the business model existing in technology parks, according to which the development of good practices should take place, because the continuation of operations requires the TPs to learn in each horizon. In the research, the ambidexterity approach was adopted as one that fits into the current trend of strategic management based on paradoxes, assuming the simultaneity of exploratory and exploitative learning. Identified paths of learning good practices in the analysed Polish TPs and the identification of consequences of their use became the basis for proposing managerial recommendations, indicating ambidexterity as the appropriate path to develop good practices in the conditions of changes in TPs’ funding sources and their consequences on the current or future TPs’ business profiles as business environment institutions. The research results show that when managers strive to develop the TPs in Poland, they use already-recognised good practices to maintain their offer, and at the same time, experiment with new good practices in order to enrich the offer. The research findings have become a contribution to determining the role of exploration and exploitation in the context of good practices applied by the TPs in Poland. In the future, it is recommended to conduct research on the antecedence of exploratory and exploitative TPs’ learning and its implications for their effectiveness.