Serendipity: why some organizations are luckier than others

Miguel Pina e Cunha

Nova SBE Working Paper Series from Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Nova School of Business and Economics

Abstract: Serendipity refers to the accidental discovery of something valuable. It is sometimes presented as an element of organizational learning but has been the object of scarce research. In this paper, I discuss the notion of serendipity in the organizational context, and elaborate a model of organizational serendipity. Four building blocks are considered: the conditions that facilitate serendipitous discovery, the search for a solution for a given problem, a process of bisociation leading to the combination of previously unrelated skills or information, and the discovery of an unexpected solution to a different problem. I also discuss what organizations can do to improve the chances of serendipity.

Keywords: Serendipity; search; bisociation; chance; accidental discoveries; unintentional learning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22 pages
Date: 2005
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:unl:unlfep:wp472

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