Exnovation as a strategic enabler: Unlocking technological innovation through ambidexterity and capability reconfiguration

Progress in the digital age is not merely a matter of adding the new, but also of the deliberate cessation of technologies or routines that have outlived their strategic value. Positioned as a theory-building conceptual synthesis, this study advances the concept of exnovation as a primary catalyst of technological renewal, drawing upon a triangulated lens of dynamic capabilities, resource-based, and organisational learning perspectives. A hermeneutic synthesis of 108 peer-reviewed studies indicates that exnovation generates discretionary slack and cognitive space. Critically, these resources translate into durable innovation only under specific organisational contingencies. First, organisational ambidexterity…