Corporate Exploration Competence and the Entrepreneurial Enterprise

To sustain competitive advantage, entrepreneurial enterprises utilize all sources for innovation, including external intellectual properties and creative work. To access these knowledge resources effectively, they must develop and sustain corporate exploration competence, a dynamic capability built on a foundation of absorptive capacity and enabled by appropriate organizational culture and structure. A study of medical imaging firms reveals the nature of corporate exploration competence. Firms with high corporate exploration competence have a culture dominated by an open innovation vision and supported by formal and informal norms. Employees with professional expertise and social skills who are capable of exploration are mandated to perform roles as informant (listening), scout (observing), and prospector (entrepreneurial). External actors such as technology transfer agencies and firms and technology brokers can assist in and even catalyze external exploration. Learning feedback loops are used to increase the absorptive capacity of actors and organization.