The Organizational Improvisation Landscape: Taking Stock and Looking Forward

Ciuchta, Michael P.; O’Toole, Jay; Miner, Anne S.

doi:10.1177/0149206320966987

Cited by 51 publications

(75 citation statements)

References 133 publications

(256 reference statements)

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“…This relationship has been observed even in music and theatre, which are the mother grounds for improvising [52]. Furthermore, Ciuchta, O'Toole, and Miner [53] in their extensive review of the field of organizational improvisation point to the fact that improvisation has an effect on employee confidence and ability to handle unique situations which in turn increases the propensity to take risk [54]. Therefore we hypothesize: Hypothesis 3 (H3).…”

Section: Hypothesis 2 (H2) Improvisation Has Positive Influence On Proactivenessmentioning

confidence: 87%

Improvisation as Responsible Innovation in Organizations

Gojny-Zbierowska

Zbierowski

2021

Sustainability

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Improvisation might be seen as a method of responsible innovation in organizations, due to its potential to be more responsive and enable bottom-up initiative. Considering that improvising involves the ability to pivot we argue that enhancing entrepreneurial orientation of existing firms means that their entrepreneurial behaviors can be also displayed in more responsible manner. The paper aims at investigating the influence of improvisation on entrepreneurial orientation (EO). While intuitively improvisation is closely connected to EO, surprisingly, there is very little theoretical and empirical evidence on that relation. The paper closes that gap by empirically investigating the role that improvisation plays in enhancing EO. Building on empirical evidence on the role of improvising in individual entrepreneurship, we use Hmieleski and Corbett’s framework of improvisation as a three-dimensional construct (creativity and bricolage, ability to function and excel under pressure and in stress-filled environments, and spontaneity and persistence) and entrepreneurial orientation as a three-dimensional construct (innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk taking) to investigate the impact of improvisation on individual components of EO. Using the data from 567 senior managers from medium and large organizations we find that improvisation has moderate effect on entrepreneurial orientation. Importantly, different dimensions of improvisation shape components of EO in different way: Creativity and bricolage have positive impact on innovativeness and proactiveness and ability to function and excel under stress has impact on propensity to take risk. The study has implications for the theory of responsible innovation by highlighting the potential of improvising to generate more responsive and stakeholder-involving and, in consequence, more responsible innovation.

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Section: Hypothesis 2 (H2) Improvisation Has Positive Influence On Proactivenessmentioning

confidence: 87%

Improvisation as Responsible Innovation in Organizations

Gojny-Zbierowska

Zbierowski

2021

Sustainability

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“…Ciuchta et al (2020) distinguish between two stylized components of improvisation: improvisation that completes some pre-set design ( completion improvisation ) and improvisation that changes a pre-set design ( redesign improvisation ). According to these authors, redesign improvisation involves rejecting a prior design and creating a new one, whereas completion improvisation does not require the rejection of a prior design and instead allows for elaborating on that prior design or introducing unspecified details.…”

Section: What Is Strategic Improvisation?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Over the past two decades, attention to improvisational practice in organizations has increased substantially (Fisher and Barrett, 2019; Miner and O'Toole, 2020; Ciuchta et al , 2020). Effective improvisation skills are important for contemporary managers, who are faced with major challenges that include global competition, digital transformation and more recently the COVID-19 pandemic (Lloyd-Smith, 2020; Lombardi et al , 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Effective improvisation skills are important for contemporary managers, who are faced with major challenges that include global competition, digital transformation and more recently the COVID-19 pandemic (Lloyd-Smith, 2020; Lombardi et al , 2021). It represents an important practice in which organizations and their members address problems and create opportunities in ways that do not fully depend on prior plans or programmed routines (Ciuchta et al , 2020). As some organizations embrace a logic of opportunity, the occurrence of improvisation has been observed in strategic management (Crossan et al , 1996; Crossan and Hurst, 2006; Eisenhardt, 1997; Hodgkinson et al , 2016; Perry, 1991), connecting strategy and operational practice (Smets et al , 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The SI concept is considered by some authors as a product of descriptive decision theory (Nemkova et al , 2012; Perry, 1991), which reflects flexibility, experimentation and adaptiveness, and it has been argued that it is better suited to uncertain decision-making contexts (Hodgkinson et al , 2016; Nemkova et al , 2012; Reymen et al , 2015). Whether SI acts as a complete replacement for a design during execution or as a complement to the initial design is an issue that remains open for further inquiry (Ciuchta et al , 2020). Finally, SI research occasionally succumbs to reflection on whether it could be an action stream with improvisation practices focused on strategy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Strategic improvisation: an introductory conceptual framework

Mamédio

Cunha

Meyer

2021

CCSM

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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.

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Organizational improvisation and corporate green innovation: A dynamic capability perspective

et al. 2023

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The march toward fusing business with sustainability is articulated with the hope of offering solutions to global environmental degradation. Green innovation is often regarded as an effective strategy to induce double externality with positive innovation and environmental spillovers. Despite numerous research works on determinants of green innovation, the key question, however, whether and how organizational improvisation exerts its influence on innovatively being green is still unsolved. On this basis, the current study seeks to demonstrate a connection between organizational improvisation and corporate green innovation. According to the presented theoretical framework, organizational improvisation, which serves as a catalyst for improving learning processes, promotes green innovation. Furthermore, dynamic capabilities mediate this relationship, and top management risk aversion could weaken the successful transformation of substantive innovation and being green. Empirical evidence is found based on a sample of Chinese manufacturing firms with a moderated mediation analysis. These results extend the understanding of the role of improvisation in green achievements towards the fusion of unplanned change and order.

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The Organizational Improvisation Landscape: Taking Stock and Looking Forward

Cited by 51 publications

References 133 publications

Improvisation as Responsible Innovation in Organizations

Improvisation as Responsible Innovation in Organizations

Strategic improvisation: an introductory conceptual framework

Organizational improvisation and corporate green innovation: A dynamic capability perspective

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