The Role of Co-creation in Enhancing Explorative and Exploitative Learning in Project-Based Settings

T he importance of simultaneously facilitating short-term efficiency by exploiting existing knowledge and technologies to make profits today, and long-term innovation by exploring new knowledge and technologies to adapt for future demands, is continuously highlighted in the management literature (e.g., Jansen, Tempelaar, van Den Bosch, & Volberda, 2009; March, 1991; O’Reilly & Tushman, 2013). Most prior research has studied exploration and exploitation on firm and business unit levels, investigating their effects on performance. Research targeting how exploration and exploitation are managed at the project level is less common (Junni, Sarala, Taras, & Tarba, 2013; Turner, Maylor, & Swart, 2015). This is surprising given that project-based organizations (PBOs) consistently struggle with organizational learning challenges (Bakker, Cambré, Korlaar, & Raab, 2011; Chronéer & Backlund, 2015; Scarbrough et al., 2004a). For many PBOs, innovation and explorative intra-project learning are critical aspects of developing and delivering complex and customized products that satisfy evolving customer demands, whereas exploitative inter-project learning is necessary to achieve efficient use of limited project resources (Brady & Davies, 2004; Eriksson & Leiringer, 2015; Turner et al., 2014). However, inherent characteristics such as the uniqueness, autonomy, and short-term focus of each project, and the interdependencies between project actors and their activities make it difficult to manage both explorative and exploitative learning (Davies, Dodgson, & Gann, 2016; Eriksson, 2013; Söderlund, 2008). In the particular context chosen for this article—construction projects— the above described difficulties are especially prevalent. De-centralization and dispersed modes of working in inter-organizational projects are defining characteristics of the industry (cf. Leiringer, Green, & Raja, 2009). Construction projects are temporary, often highly customized and rarely undertaken within a standard framework. Moreover, clients and end-users are rarely the same, and even large repeat clients have their projects spread across time and space (Winch & Leiringer, 2016). The downside of this arrangement is that the autonomy afforded to individual project teams increases the risk of their becoming disconnected from other projects within the same organization, with detrimental implications for inter-project learning (Bresnen, Edelman, Newell, Scarbrough, & Swan, 2003). Project learning processes are commonly impeded by temporary and often adversarial relationships that lead to coordination problems on the more complex projects (Bresnen, 2007). In recent years, therefore, collaborative arrangements (mostly termed “partnering”) have The Role of Co-creation in Enhancing Explorative and Exploitative Learning in Project-Based Settings