We report computational analysis with extensions of March’s (1991) genetic model of exploration and exploitation to further illuminate strategic exploitation challenges highlighted in field research about the transition from exploration to exploitation in strategic innovation projects. We disentangle the effects, under different conditions of exploitation urgency, of different conjunctions of exploitation drive and exploitation capability on organizational learning outcomes. We find that strong exploitation drive enhances organizational outcomes under low exploitation urgency but also degrades organizational outcomes in some other situations. Moreover, a deficit in exploitation capability may be compensated with strong exploitation drive and vice versa under high exploitation urgency. We also illuminate further the role of the strategic context determination process in the transition from exploration to exploitation in strategic innovation projects. Our integrated research findings corroborate the usefulness of the genetic computational modeling approach and suggest areas for further collaboration of computational researchers and field researchers.