Increasingly, it has been recognised that in their process of internationalisation multinationals may learn. They may take a strategy not only of exploitation, to leverage existing assets, competencies and products, built up in their home countries, but also, and perhaps even primarily, of exploration, to profit from diversity of host countries to develop new products and competencies. The question is how they can manage and integrate resulting diversity. This article analyses that issue, using a theory of organisational learning. It employs a ‘cycle of discovery’ that seeks to resolve the problem of combining exploitation and exploration. That problem arises more widely, apart from internationalisation, and solutions to it may yield solutions for problems of internationalisation.

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hdl.handle.net/1765/1123
ERIM Report Series Research in Management
Erasmus Research Institute of Management

Nooteboom, B. (2004). Organisational Learning And Multinational Strategy (No. ERS-2004-004-ORG). ERIM Report Series Research in Management. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1765/1123