Reflections on the 2013 Decade Award: 'Exploitation, Exploration, and Process Management: The Productivity Dilemma Revisited' Ten Years Later

Mary  Benner; Michael   Tushman

Article | Academy of Management Review

Reflections on the 2013 Decade Award: 'Exploitation, Exploration, and Process Management: The Productivity Dilemma Revisited' Ten Years Later

Abstract

This paper reflects on Benner and Tushman (2003): "Exploitation, Exploration, and Process Management: The Productivity Dilemma Revisited." Our paper received the Academy of Management Review's best paper award in 2003 and the decade award in 2013. We consider the context within which the paper was written with particular reference to the theoretical, empirical, and managerial problems salient at that time and comment on the likely reasons the paper has had a sustained influence in the field. Looking forward, we first ask whether the paradoxes and inconsistencies we discussed are still fundamental organizational challenges, and then go further to consider ways the domain of innovation itself has changed. We suggest that because of fundamental shifts in communication and information processing costs and the increasing modularity of products and services, the nature and locus of innovation has changed over the past decade. These secular trends have profound implications for our theories of innovation and organizations. Our extant theory and research is increasingly uncoupled from the phenomena. We would be well served to revisit the nature, locus, and basic processes of innovation.

Keywords: Organizations; Innovation and Invention;

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Benner, Mary, and Michael Tushman. "Reflections on the 2013 Decade Award: 'Exploitation, Exploration, and Process Management: The Productivity Dilemma Revisited' Ten Years Later." Academy of Management Review 40, no. 4 (October 2015): 497–514.

Operational efficiency is a core business principle in which organizations strive to deliver high-quality goods or services in a cost-effective manner. This concept has become increasingly relevant to cardiac catheterization laboratories, as insurers move away from fee-for-service reimbursement and toward payment determined by quality measures bundled per episode of care. Accordingly, this review provides a framework for optimizing efficiency in the cardiac cath lab. The authors outline a management method based on the Nadler-Tushman Congruence Model, a commonly used business tool by which a company can assess whether its key elements are aligned with its strategy. Standardized metrics of cath lab efficiency are proposed, which can be used in public reports on this topic moving forward. Attention is paid to understanding balance sheets to track the financial health of the cath lab. Specific cost-saving measures are described, and examples of strategies used to save supply expenses are provided.

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Reflections on the 2013 Decade Award: 'Exploitation, Exploration, and Process Management: The Productivity Dilemma Revisited' Ten Years Later

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