Exploitation and exploration learning and the development of organizational capabilities: A cross-case analysis of the Russian oil industry
通过对四家俄罗斯石油巨头的跨案例分析，研究了转型经济中利用式与探索式学习如何分阶段促进组织能力发展，并揭示了管理风格变化对学习过程的影响。
We use a cross-case analysis of four Russian oil majors to develop a framework explaining the relationship between exploitation and exploration learning, and the development of organizational capabilities in transition economies. Our research explains how the changing top management style influences organizational learning over time. In the first stage of organizational transformation an authoritarian management style initiates a break with the administrative heritage of the organization to facilitate exploitation learning and the development of operational capabilities. These are required for survival in the new conditions of a market economy. In the second stage a more participatory management style fosters exploration learning and the development of strategic flexibility, required for sustainable competitive advantage. We demonstrate that exploitation and exploration learning do not coexist in the initial stages of transformation but are sequential. We found that the western-derived constructs of organizational learning add to our understanding of the process of organizational transformation in a transition context. Our study of the Russian oil industry also provides new ways to think about the processes of organizational learning in western companies, particularly large bureaucratic ones, anchored in their administrative heritage and needing to undergo organizational transformation.