Focusing on what you know will narrow your horizon? The role of knowledge base cohesion in learning from brokering

Structural holes are believed to be a source of good ideas, important inputs for exploratory innovation. Nevertheless, firms that span structural holes may not always be good learners, as their learning orientation also matters. Drawing upon organisational learning theory and the knowledge recombination perspective, we argue that cohesive knowledge base plays a contingent role in the association between spanning structural holes (SSH) and new knowledge exploration (NKE). Based on panel data of Chinese automakers, our results indicate that global cohesion of knowledge base positively moderates the relationship between SSH and NKE. In contrast, local cohesion of the knowledge base negatively moderates the positive effect of SSH on NKE. These findings advance our understanding of the nuanced role of cohesive knowledge base in learning from brokering.