Startup Responses to Unexpected Events: The impact of the relative presence of improvisation

The Organizational Improvisation Landscape: Taking Stock and Looking Forward

“…One unintended outcome of this methodological feature is that quantitative studies of time-varying causal models of improvisation subprocesses and intermediate variables remain rare. O’Toole et al (2020) studied specific responses to focal day-to-day surprises in new firms. The authors theorized that the process of trying to combine improvisation with prior routines or plans would lead to damaging coordination challenges and found that a strong presence of both in an action stream lead to lower outcomes than either extreme of high predesign or high improvisation.…”

“…In critical situations, problem-driven triggers may be pronounced and easily identified, such as the onslaught of a wildfire (Weick, 1993a), the aftermath of a hurricane (Day et al, 2009), a cruise ship striking rock (Giustiniano et al, 2016), or a perilous situation on an outdoor adventure (Suarez & Montes, 2019; Trotter, Salmon, Goode, & Lenné, 2018). These problem-driven triggers can come in much less draconian forms as well, such as unanticipated customer requests (Lai et al, 2014), equipment breakdowns (O’Toole et al, 2020), problems implementing a new technology (Tjørnehøj & Mathiassen, 2010), or unexpected market factors when implementing a marketing plan (Neu & Brown, 2005). Triggers can also emanate as organizations and their members pursue new opportunities such as founding an organization (Baker et al, 2003) or reforming an ascent team on the climb of Mt.…”

“…Notably, we break these outcomes into immediate, short term, and long term. The immediate outcomes refer to the novel artifacts, processes, or interpretations that the OIE generates (Miner et al, 2001) and potential episode resolution (O’Toole et al, 2020). Short-term outcomes include impacts on organizational performance.…”

“…This work has been evolving across a 25-year period with visible legitimacy spurred by a live jazz performance and symposium at the 1995 Academy of Management conference in Vancouver and a 1998 special issue of Organization Science. The total body of research on OI has accumulated from a variety of fields covering a wide array of contexts including high-stakes events like the Mann Gulch wildfire (Weick, 1993a), Hurricane Katrina (Day, Junglas, & Silva, 2009), the attacks on the World Trade Center (Mendonça, 2007), the sinking of the Costa Concordia cruise ship (Giustiniano, Cunha, & Clegg, 2016), and a Mount Everest expedition (Suarez & Montes, 2019) to more commonplace situations such as new product development (NPD; Miner, Bassof, & Moorman, 2001; Vera, Nemanich, Vélez-Castrillón, & Werner, 2016), information technology implementation (Boudreau & Robey, 2005), daily work life (Abrantes, Passos, e Cunha, & Santos, 2018; Magni & Maruping, 2013; Patriotta & Gruber, 2015), entrepreneurship (Baker, Miner, & Eesley, 2003; Bingham, 2009; Hmieleski, Corbett, & Baron, 2013; O’Toole, Gong, Baker, Eesley, & Miner, 2020), and healthcare (King & Ranft, 2001; Klein, Ziegert, Knight, & Xiao, 2006). Studies of OI appear in multiple disciplines of theory and practice covering business and the social sciences, as well as medicine, information technology, and engineering.…”

“…By an OIE, we mean a bundle of activity that has a high presence of improvisation. The OIE does not imply a sharply delineated categorical event but rather characterizes improvisation as a matter of degree (O’Toole et al, 2020; Weick, 1998). Because researchers in several fields across widely dispersed contexts using various types of analysis study the phenomenon of OI, OI scholarship can benefit not only from an updated comprehensive review of extant research but also an outline of a research agenda that highlights especially promising potential research directions.…”