Abstract

In the face of increasing competition, an organization’s capacity to acquire knowledge from the
outside has become fundamental for new product development. Pertinent extant literature has
stressed how an organization should practice social product development, allowing for the
inclusion of all types of stakeholders in idea generation, selection, validation, and
commercialization.
This study investigates how organizations can acquire, maintain, and use different sources of
knowledge via ambidextrous habits of exploitation and exploration to sustain social product
development. A case study based on 27 semi-structured interviews and field observations at a
leading, large-size, Dutch food-service company has been carried out. The findings illustrate the
organizational processes and mechanisms that the company has adopted to address and combine
practice- and research-based knowledge, as well as the main barriers limiting the accumulation
and usage of this knowledge inside organizational boundaries.