<p>Innovation in firms can be doubly influenced by government-supported alliances (GSAs) for innovation and non-government-supported knowledge networks, but we know little about why and how GSA participation affects firm exploratory innovation and its combined effects with structural holes in the knowledge network. Drawing on research on corporate political strategy, we argue that GSA participation presents a puzzle. On the one hand, a firm can reduce resource constraint for innovation. On the other hand, the firm’s innovation is subject to political constraint for non-market purposes. Moreover, from a relational pluralism perspective, GSA dependence and knowledge network can be either synergetic or antagonistic in affecting exploratory innovation. Using a sample of public firms in China with a difference-in-differences approach, we find evidence that GSA participation decreases a firm’s exploratory innovation, supporting the political constraint argument. However, the negative effect diminishes when firms have more structure holes in the knowledge networks, supporting the synergetic perspective. This study provides new insight on how firms combine political strategies and network strategies to improve exploratory innovation.</p>