Strategic improvisation: an introductory conceptual framework

Abstract

PurposeBy exploring “what is strategic improvisation in organizations?” the authors respond to advances in strategic improvisation (SI) conceptualization with an emphasis on the challenges of combining unplanned but deliberate responses to relentlessly changing environments, in which strategy becomes increasingly improvised.Design/methodology/approachAn integrative review was conducted with the potential to develop new theoretical approaches to research problems. This literature review resulted in an introductory SI framework.FindingsThe authors propose a SI conceptual framework combining foundation, structuration and capillarization. While foundations comprise extemporaneity, novelty and intentionality, considered as triggers for the manifestation of SI, in this study structuration refers to the combination of a minimal structure and a reassessment process in response to unexpected situations. Capillarization means interaction patterns characterized as spontaneous, dynamic and collaborative. This framework leads to the definition of SI as an impromptu deliberate action stream, combining unplanned responses with intentional actions sustaining the convergence of strategy and operation, to integrate and reconfigure resources at the strategic level.Practical implicationsSI in practice considers reconfiguring the internal and external forces to deal with unexpected events and impromptu deliberate responses to face rapidly changing environments. This would enable practitioners and managers to prepare for eventualities that evolve dynamically and spontaneously, and unpredictable imminent global crises.Originality/valueThe authors conducted the first study mapping improvisation as a strategic organizational level phenomenon. SI is recognized as operating across levels, from the tactical and functional to the strategic.

Knowledge management strategies and organizational improvisation: what changed after the emergence of technological turbulence caused by artificial intelligence?

“…Organizational improvisation is the ability to respond to unexpected environmental turbulence quickly by simultaneously creating and executing novel solutions through the unplanned recombination of available resources (Kung and Kung, 2019; Mamédio et al , 2022). Therefore, improvisation has three distinctive features: first, it requires a timely organizational response to an urgent, unpredictable and novel situation in the environment (Pavlou and El Sawy, 2010; Velez-Ocampo and Gonzalez-Perez, 2021), with a very short time lag between planning and execution or with both activities occurring simultaneously (Moorman and Miner, 1998).…”

“…By definition, organizational improvisation is linked to environmental turbulence (Moorman and Miner, 1998), which generates a high level of change, uncertainty and unpredictability, and acts as a trigger for the firm's real-time response (Kung and Kung, 2019; Mamédio et al , 2022). In essence, turbulence is caused by changes in customer preferences, intense competition or frequent technological changes (Bodlaj and Čater, 2019).…”

“…, 2018). In particular, technological turbulence first creates awareness of the need to tackle the new technological challenge (Bodlaj and Čater, 2019), which in turn generates greater interaction among individuals to find new solutions (Mamédio et al , 2022; Pavlou and El Sawy, 2010) and increased engagement in initiatives aiming to generate new ideas collectively (Wang et al. , 2019; Wu et al.…”

“…, 2020). In turn, knowledge is the most important of all the resources organizations have at their disposal for a real-time response; in fact, previous studies have shown that organizational improvisation is determined by the inventory and dynamics of knowledge flows in the company (Mamédio et al , 2022; Wang et al. , 2019).…”

“…However, the debate over knowledge management strategies and improvisation remained in the pre-digital era: even recent studies continue to focus on the tacit and explicit knowledge that people generate and use, without acknowledging the changes emerging with the digital era. In general, mainstream research continues to show that knowledge strategies favor improvisation (Belkhodja and Daghfous, 2021; Mamédio et al , 2022; Walsh and Lannon, 2020). However, preliminary evidence argues otherwise, indicating that technological turbulence generated by AI increases knowledge concealment (Arias-Pérez and Vélez-Jaramillo, 2021).…”