Forming managers’ exploitation and exploration from the interplay of managers’ formal and informal networks in China: a moderated mediation model

Managerial networks represent a crucial factor affecting managers’ exploitation and exploration. However, the theoretical mechanism linking managerial networks to managers’ exploitation and exploration remains poorly understood. Thus, we focus on the interplay of managers’ formal and informal networks and develop a moderated mediation model to examine the relationship between managerial networks and managers’ exploitation and exploration. An analysis of 269 managers working in 73 Chinese enterprises reveals that the consistency of managers’ formal and informal network has a positive indirect relationship with managers’ exploitation and exploration via knowledge creation. Environmental dynamism moderates the strength of this mediated relationship such that the mediated effects are weaker under conditions of high environmental dynamism and stronger under conditions of low environmental dynamism. By exploring this theoretical mechanism, this study contributes to the literature concerning exploitation and exploration at the managerial level and systematically analyzes managers’ relationship networks and behaviours based on social information processing theory.