Exploitative and exploratory search: Dynamic capabilities enhancing SME adaptation, new product development, and environmental performance
研究新兴经济体中中小企业如何通过利用性和探索性搜索策略适应市场变化、提升环境绩效，并发现这两种搜索对新产品开发和环境绩效有不同贡献。
This study delves into how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) adapt to market changes and enhance environmental performance through exploitative and exploratory search strategies within emerging economies. Operationalizing these strategies as dynamic capabilities, we investigate their impact on new product development amid environmental dynamism. Utilizing a two-wave survey of 437 manufacturing SMEs, with lagged primary environmental performance data, we applied partial least squares—structural equational modeling (PLS-SEM) to test our hypotheses. Our findings contribute invaluable insights to entrepreneurship literature, emphasizing the crucial role of intentional search in SMEs’ continuous adaptation and innovation. We shed light on the distinctive contributions of exploitative and exploratory search in shaping SMEs’ resource base and specific outputs, such as environmental performance. By discerning between possessing a capability and achieving successful outcomes, our study offers a resilient framework for SMEs, boosting both new product development and environmental performance in emerging economies.