The improvisation-serendipity nexus

With this chapter, we aim to fulfill two goals: to discuss improvisation as negative capability, a possibility that has not been conceptually explored, and to introduce the previously unattended linkages between improvisation and serendipity. Our rationale is that as organizational members conduct their daily improvisations, they use the available resources via bricolage. Through action, bricoleurs expand the affordances of their resource pools, sometimes creating serendipitous discoveries. These discoveries may open exaptive uses for resources which then, again, expand the perceived affordances of resources. The dialogue between these two fields may indicate important avenues for future work on improvisation.