Overseas Business and Ethnic Ties, Slack Resources, and Exploitative and Exploratory Learning of Exporting SMEs

Abstract Network ties are crucial sources of organizational learning. Different types of networks, however, embody different types of resources and may relate to exploitative and exploratory learning differently. Drawing on social network theory and organizational learning, we differentiate overseas business and overseas ethnic ties of exporting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and examine their relationship with exploitative and exploratory learning, respectively. Our results based on survey data of exporting SMEs in China find that overseas business ties are positively related to exploitative learning, whereas overseas ethnic ties are positively related to exploratory learning. Furthermore, slack resources strengthen the positive relationship between overseas ethnic ties and exploratory learning. Our study provides new theoretical and managerial insights for the utilization of business and ethnic ties to achieve exploratory and exploitative learning, particularly in the context of exporting SMEs.