We investigate how strategic leaders of an incumbent firm frame exploration of digital opportunities at the interfaces of organizational hierarchy. Digital technologies create an unbounded array of opportunities that may pose challenges to the strategic coherence of corporate entrepreneurship activity. Our analysis reveals that top management teams (TMTs) adopt a paradoxical framing of exploration, thereby creating a liminal space with unstable boundaries between exploration activities aligned with core resources (i.e., convergent) and those perceived as divergent. We show that middle managers (MMs) skillfully navigate this space by combining framing with substantive and symbolic actions to blur the boundaries of exploration. Drawing on our findings, we theorize the role of framing at the interfaces between the TMT and MMs in setting boundaries for exploration.

中文翻译：

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阈限空间中的战略领导力：在分层界面上构建数字机遇的探索

我们研究了现有公司的战略领导者如何在组织层次结构的界面上探索数字机会。数字技术创造了无限的机会，可能对企业创业活动的战略一致性构成挑战。我们的分析表明，高层管理团队（TMT）采用自相矛盾的探索框架，从而在与核心资源一致（即趋同）的探索活动和被视为发散的探索活动之间创造了一个界限不稳定的界限空间。我们表明，中层管理人员（MM）通过将框架与实质性和象征性行动相结合来模糊探索的界限，巧妙地驾驭这一空间。根据我们的研究结果，我们理论化了 TMT 和 MM 之间的界面框架在设定探索边界方面的作用。