Performance implications of marketing exploitation and exploration: Moderating role of supplier collaboration

Abstract

While previous studies suggest that firms can achieve superior performance by being ambidextrous—engaging in exploitative and exploratory activities simultaneously—research is scarce on the performance implications of pursuing ambidexterity in firms' marketing function. This investigation considers firms' ambidexterity in marketing to consist of exploratory and exploitative marketing activities and examines the individual and joint impact of these activities on market performance. In addition, this investigation proposes and tests the conjecture that firms' collaborations with suppliers would moderate the impact of marketing exploitation and exploration on firm performance differently. The findings from surveys of key informants in 220 firms show that pursuing marketing exploitation and exploration simultaneously hurts firms' market performance. Supplier collaboration enhances the impact of marketing exploration but weakens the impact of marketing exploitation on market performance.