{"title":"Calling It Quits: A Behavioral Perspective on Exploration and Exploitation in R&D Project Termination","authors":"Fei Li, Matthew Semadeni, Tyson R. Browning","doi":"10.1002/joom.70034","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div>\n \n <p>Not every R&D project will succeed, necessitating a careful selection of which R&D projects to pursue and which to terminate. Timely termination decisions free up scarce resources for more promising projects. Yet, prior research has yielded inconclusive results on how firms terminate exploratory versus exploitative R&D projects. Given that early-stage R&D project termination is a decision made under high uncertainty, we adopt a behavioral perspective to reconcile the inconsistent findings. We propose that a firm's preference for terminating exploratory versus exploitative projects depends on three sources of contextual feedback: parallel projects, prior collaboration experience, and firm performance. We test our hypotheses using drug development projects from pharmaceutical firms over 11 years, finding that exploratory projects are less likely to be terminated relative to exploitative ones when the number of parallel projects is limited, when they are conducted with an existing partner, or when firm performance falls below aspiration.</p>\n </div>","PeriodicalId":51097,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Operations Management","volume":"72 3","pages":"417-438"},"PeriodicalIF":10.1000,"publicationDate":"2026-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Operations Management","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/joom.70034","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2026/2/9 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"MANAGEMENT","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Not every R&D project will succeed, necessitating a careful selection of which R&D projects to pursue and which to terminate. Timely termination decisions free up scarce resources for more promising projects. Yet, prior research has yielded inconclusive results on how firms terminate exploratory versus exploitative R&D projects. Given that early-stage R&D project termination is a decision made under high uncertainty, we adopt a behavioral perspective to reconcile the inconsistent findings. We propose that a firm's preference for terminating exploratory versus exploitative projects depends on three sources of contextual feedback: parallel projects, prior collaboration experience, and firm performance. We test our hypotheses using drug development projects from pharmaceutical firms over 11 years, finding that exploratory projects are less likely to be terminated relative to exploitative ones when the number of parallel projects is limited, when they are conducted with an existing partner, or when firm performance falls below aspiration.
期刊介绍：
The Journal of Operations Management (JOM) is a leading academic publication dedicated to advancing the field of operations management (OM) through rigorous and original research. The journal's primary audience is the academic community, although it also values contributions that attract the interest of practitioners. However, it does not publish articles that are primarily aimed at practitioners, as academic relevance is a fundamental requirement.
JOM focuses on the management aspects of various types of operations, including manufacturing, service, and supply chain operations. The journal's scope is broad, covering both profit-oriented and non-profit organizations. The core criterion for publication is that the research question must be centered around operations management, rather than merely using operations as a context. For instance, a study on charismatic leadership in a manufacturing setting would only be within JOM's scope if it directly relates to the management of operations; the mere setting of the study is not enough.
Published papers in JOM are expected to address real-world operational questions and challenges. While not all research must be driven by practical concerns, there must be a credible link to practice that is considered from the outset of the research, not as an afterthought. Authors are cautioned against assuming that academic knowledge can be easily translated into practical applications without proper justification.
JOM's articles are abstracted and indexed by several prestigious databases and services, including Engineering Information, Inc.; Executive Sciences Institute; INSPEC; International Abstracts in Operations Research; Cambridge Scientific Abstracts; SciSearch/Science Citation Index; CompuMath Citation Index; Current Contents/Engineering, Computing & Technology; Information Access Company; and Social Sciences Citation Index. This ensures that the journal's research is widely accessible and recognized within the academic and professional communities.
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