Always Playable: Recombining Routines for Creative Efficiency at Ubisoft Montreal’s Video Game Studio

Patrick S. Cohendet () and Laurent O. Simon ()
Additional contact information
Patrick S. Cohendet: Department of International Business, HEC Montréal, Montréal, Quebec H3T 2A7, Canada
Laurent O. Simon: Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, HEC Montréal, Montréal, Quebec H3T 2A7, Canada

Organization Science, 2016, vol. 27, issue 3, 614-632

Abstract: This study examines how an organization can redefine its core process when faced with a major crisis of creative efficiency. We analyze the case of the experimentation of the “Always Playable” project at Ubisoft Montreal, a leading video game development studio, where a crisis of creativity triggered an active reconfiguration of routines and their artifacts. To address this crisis, the organization attempted to restore a balance between efficiency and flexibility by modifying the generative relationship among the ostensive aspect, the performative aspect, and artifacts of routines. Our study shows that one way to reach this balance is by deliberately breaking, partitioning, and recombining aspects from different routines.

Keywords: routines; creativity; disruption; recombination; video game (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2016.1062 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:27:y:2016:i:3:p:614-632

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Organization Science from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().