Improvisation, strategy, and strategic improvisation in emerging markets

Cunha, Miguel Piña e; Gomes, Emanuel; Kamoche, Ken; Mair, Johanna; Miner, Anne S.; Tarba, Shlomo

doi:10.1111/emre.12543

Cited by 4 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Media reports have identified improvisational actions taken to deal with the pandemic, including the manufacturing of lost-cost ventilators by start-up firms and engineering students (e.g., Blandy, 2020 ) as governments negotiated uncertain supplies in turbulent times. These unexpected forms of creativity have presented new research avenues for the study of organizational improvisation in emerging economies more generally, but equally in Africa (Cunha, Gomes, Kamoche, Mair, Miner, & Tarba, 2022 ). Improvisation appears particularly pertinent in African organizational contexts that are prone to institutional turbulence and uncertainty owing to historical legacies and primary commodity dependence, that pose significant challenges to strategic planning (e.g., Kamoche, 1997 ; Kiggundu, 1989 ; Munene, 1991 ).…”

Section: Theoretical Tensions and Puzzlesmentioning

confidence: 99%

International business and Africa: Theoretical and applied challenges, and future directions

Kamoche

Wood

2023

J Int Bus Stud

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In response to Nachum et al.’s (J Int Bus Stud, 2023) call for further research in Africa by international business (IB) scholars, we argue that while IB scholars may have been slow to engage with Africa, the same cannot be said of related and IB-relevant business and management scholarship. There is already a substantial body of work on Africa in other domains of business and management scholarship – and relevant theorizing – that represents an important resource for IB scholarship. In contextualizing the ‘interesting’, we identify several contemporary theoretical strands that have so far characterized ‘Africa research’, interrogate ongoing challenges that mitigate these efforts, and suggest ways in which further research that speaks to theoretical, practical, and policy issues might inform IB researchers’ engagement with Africa. Specifically, we set out the broader scope of the African business/management debate that might inform IB research, re-examine African diversity through the prism of ‘theoretical tensions and puzzles’, and consider the role of emergent indigenous theorizing such as ubuntu and Africapitalism that make Africa both ‘interesting’ and worthy of IB inquiry.

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Section: Theoretical Tensions and Puzzlesmentioning

confidence: 99%

International business and Africa: Theoretical and applied challenges, and future directions

Kamoche

Wood

2023

J Int Bus Stud

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Section: Theoretical Background and Hypothesis Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Improvisation is a widely applied concept, manifesting itself in settings as diverse as crisis management and jazz musical expression (Cunha et al, 2022; Hadida et al, 2015; Hutchins, 1991; Vera & Crossan, 2005). There was a lot of improvisation during the Covid‐19 outbreak when individuals, firms, organizations, and societies had to improvise to cope with pandemic‐induced disruptions (Cunha et al, 2022; Munir et al, 2022). The wide application of improvisation has led scholars to use multiple definitions, tapping into intuition, action orientation, knowledge, novelty, spontaneity, and flexibility to conceptualize the concept (Hadida et al, 2015; Vera & Crossan, 2004).…”

Section: Theoretical Background and Hypothesis Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The desperation principle of the COR theory indicates that firms are likely to engage in defensive or exploratory behaviors during supply chain disruptions in order to safeguard or adapt how they currently earn a living (Halbesleben et al, 2014; Hobfoll et al, 2018). Evidence shows that spontaneous and creative improvisation is defensive and exploratory behaviors that firms manifest during supply chain disruptions (e.g., Cunha et al, 2022; Latour, 2001; Lombardi et al, 2021; Munir et al, 2022). COR theory argues that “individuals and organizations who lack resources are more vulnerable to resource loss and less capable of resource gain” (Hobfoll et al, 2018, p. 4).…”

Section: Theoretical Background and Hypothesis Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Improvisation refers to the degree to which firms engage in spontaneous and creative actions to find new ways to achieve an objective (Vera & Crossan, 2005). Indeed, anecdotal evidence of improvisation in disruptive situations abounds in resource‐constrained and resource‐abundant contexts (e.g., Cunha et al, 2022; Latour, 2001; Lombardi et al, 2021; Luo & Malsch, 2020; Munir et al, 2022). Burberry, Louis Vuitton, LMVH, Rolls Royce, the Formula One team, and Airbus all used improvisation to manage disruptions from the Covid‐19 pandemic, as did small and medium‐sized firms (SMEs) in developing economies (Cunha et al, 2022; Stekelorum et al, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

In search of operational resilience: How and when improvisation matters

Essuman

Ataburo

Boso

et al. 2023

J of Business Logistics

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The need to improvise during supply chain disruptions to enhance operational resilience is ever more critical. Yet, managers appear to lack an understanding of how and when improvisation matters. We apply the conservation of resources theory to conceptualize how firms activate spontaneous and creative improvisation during supply chain disruptions and theorize how that relates to operational resilience in low and high supply chain disruption conditions. We test our arguments on primary data from a sample of 259 firms in Ghana. We find that creative improvisation has a positive relationship with operational resilience, and this relationship is stronger in high supply chain disruption conditions. Spontaneous improvisation, on the contrary, is unrelated to operational resilience in both low and high supply chain disruption conditions. These findings indicate that not all types of improvisation contribute to operational resilience, suggesting the need for a nuanced approach to theorizing and applying the improvisation concept in supply chains.

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When do firms learn? Learning before versus after exporting

Vendrell-Herrero,

Gomes,

Darko

et al. 2024

Small Bus Econ

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Organizational learning begins with experience. However, it remains an open question whether firms learn from a particular type of experience: exporting. This study aims to speak into this debate by examining when learning by exporting occurs. Our core thesis is that the timing of learning by exporting depends on a firm’s home market economic development. Drawing on classic theories of organizational learning, we posit that firms in more developed home markets will enjoy greater opportunities for learning before exporting whereas firms in less developed home markets will enjoy greater opportunities for learning after exporting. The former will be observed as a divergence in productivity among firms from different home markets, whereas the latter will be observed as convergence over time. The proposed hypotheses were tested and supported using longitudinal data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey. A range of theoretical and practical contributions are discussed.

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Improvisation, strategy, and strategic improvisation in emerging markets

Cited by 4 publications

References 52 publications

International business and Africa: Theoretical and applied challenges, and future directions

International business and Africa: Theoretical and applied challenges, and future directions

In search of operational resilience: How and when improvisation matters

When do firms learn? Learning before versus after exporting

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