The Impact of Exploitation and Exploration on Export Sales Growth: The Moderating Role of Domestic and International Collaborations

This study examines the short- and long-term implications of the impact of exploitation and exploration on export sales growth. It also explores the moderating role of external collaborations by differentiating between domestic collaborations and international collaborations. The authors tested their conceptual model with data from the UK Community Innovation Survey (2010–2016). Using different time lags for exploitation and exploration, the findings indicate that the impact varies over time. Specifically, they reveal that the effect of exploitation is negative in the long-term but turns positive in the short-term, while exploration has no significant effect in the short-term but a positive influence on export sales growth in the long-term. Similarly, the moderating effect of domestic and international collaborations have been found to vary over time. The theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.