Drawing on the opportunity-motivation-ability perspective, this study examines the linkages of business and political ties to exploratory innovation, and explores the joint moderating effects of innovation orientation and absorptive capacity on the linkages. It finds that the positive linkage between business ties and exploratory innovation is jointly strengthened by innovation orientation and absorptive capacity, while the insignificant linkage of political ties to exploratory innovation is moderated negatively by the interaction of innovation orientation and absorptive capacity. This study enriches the discipline's knowledge on the antecedents of exploratory innovation. Moreover, it contextualizes the effects of managerial ties on an important but overlooked type of innovation-exploratory innovation-and illustrates how a firm can integrate managerial ties with innovation orientation and absorptive capacity to realize their implications for exploratory innovation, which advances our understanding of the relationships between managerial ties and firm innovations.