Do firms learn from their failed innovation attempts? Answering this question is important because failure is an integral part of exploratory learning. In this study, we consider whether and under what circumstances firms learn from their small failures in experimentation. Building on organizational learning literature, we examine the conditions under which prior failures influence firms’ R&D output, in terms of amount and quality. Our findings contribute to the organizational learning literature by providing a nuanced view of learning from failures in experimentation.
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