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The purpose of this paper is to describe strategic improvisation, a contemporary concept and approach based on the creative arts and organizational crisis theory, as a valuable approach for communication professionals. Strategic improvisation combines the need for planning and structure with creative action, and is a normative idea of how to work in an efficient way.

The concept is developed in a collaborative project between a major Swedish communications agency and a university scholar. The empirical foundation consists of 25 qualitative interviews with a strategic selection of successful communication professionals, identified as typical strategic improvisers.

An analysis of the interviews led to 11 defining patterns or themes typical for strategic improvisation and strategic improvisers. The interviews and the theoretical framework is the foundation of a communication model. Strategic improvisation is defined as a situational interpretation within a given framework. The model has three interconnected parts: a clear framework (composition), a professional interpretation (interpretation) and a situational adaptation based on given possibilities and conditions (improvisation).

This is not a peer reviewed paper, but a paper in the section “In Practice,” directed toward communication professionals.

The ideas and model are connected to theories of improvisation, especially in music, which is rare in the field of communication management, and developed in a collaborative project between practice and research.

By 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.

An integrative review was conducted with the potential to develop new theoretical approaches to research problems. This literature review resulted in an introductory SI framework.

The 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.

SI 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.

The 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.

This paper aims to examine the effects of two types of improvisational strategic orientation on new venture performance: defensive improvisation and creative improvisation. Moreover, this study investigates the role of entrepreneurial bricolage in mediating the transition from various types of improvisational strategic orientation to new venture performance.

This study is designed as quantitative research, employing a structural equation model and bootstrap analysis to empirically test the survey data of 249 new ventures gathered to investigate the true relationship between variables in this paper.

The findings of this study show that (1) both defensive and creative improvisation positively affect the performance of new ventures, with defensive improvisation having a stronger positive effect; (2) both internal and external bricolage positively affect new venture performance, and play varying degrees of intermediary roles in the influence that defensive and creative improvisation has on the performance of start-ups.

The following limitations apply to this study: First, this paper collects data using a cross-sectional research design, which cannot reveal dynamic changes in the research variables. Second, this study only opens the “black box” of the role of improvisational strategic orientation on new venture performance from the perspective of entrepreneurial bricolage, and the research conclusion may be biased. Finally, the external factors' contingency effect on the relationship between variables is ignored.

This study develops a theoretical research model of improvisational strategic orientation, entrepreneurial bricolage and new venture performance, and provides a thorough examination of the internal mechanisms of various types of improvisational strategic orientation on new venture performance. The research findings not only contribute to the advancement of research on improvisational strategic orientation in the context of entrepreneurship but also assist entrepreneurs in developing a correct understanding of improvisational strategic orientation.

Although knowledge has become a decisive factor in the development of firms, there has been no detailed investigation into how start-ups acquire external knowledge. In order to narrow the research gap, this paper attempts to explore the mechanism of acquiring external knowledge in start-ups from the perspective of “environment–[sic.] structure” interaction.

This research develops a conceptual model regarding improvisation as an independent variable, strategic flexibility as a mediator, knowledge acquisition as the dependent variable and environmental mutation as a moderator between improvisation and strategic flexibility. Furthermore, this study collects the survey data from 277 firms and uses structural equation modeling (SEM) to empirically test the model and hypotheses.

The results show that creativity-bricolage and spontaneity-persistence have significantly positive effects on both capability flexibility and coordination flexibility. However, the positive effects of pressure-stress on capability flexibility and coordination flexibility are not supported. Meanwhile, the mediating roles of capability flexibility and coordination flexibility are supported. Finally, environmental mutation only positively moderates the relationship between creativity-bricolage and capability flexibility.

Improvisation can be seen as a core antecedent for start-ups to acquire external knowledge in environmental mutation. More specifically, the significant mediator is strategic flexibility to promote the relationship between improvisation and knowledge acquisition. The findings provide practical inspiration for start-ups to effectively utilize improvisation in emergencies.

This paper aims to examine the effect of financial bootstrapping strategies (FBS) and strategic improvisation (SI) on business performance (BP). The study enriches our understanding of the contributions of bootstrapping and improvisation strategies toward resource-constrained small businesses during real economic downturns and crises. The potential moderating effect of SI on the relationship between FBS and its dimensions and performance were also examined.

Using the convenience snowball sampling technique, data were collected from entrepreneurs in Tripoli, Libya. Structural equation modeling by means of partial least square bootstrapping resampling was used for the hypotheses testing of the 147 useable responses.

Statistically significant positive relationships were found in the direct relationships between bootstrapping and improvisation with performance. However, there was no significant association found between the delaying payment related bootstrapping and the owner-related bootstrapping with performance. The moderating effect of improvisation had a significant relationship between bootstrapping as an aggregate construct and its dimensions and performance.

Due to the cross-sectional nature of this study which used a small sample that was randomly selected, generalization to the entire population of business ventures should be made with caution.

The negative moderation effect of improvisation on FBS-BP association suggests that entrepreneurs need to be careful in balancing the two strategies so that efforts are no wasted.

While business performance has been studied in various organizations, its examination with financial bootstrapping strategies as a predictor and strategic improvisation as a moderator contribute nascent theoretical insights.

The purpose of this article is to investigate ways in which improvisation can be used to enhance and advance market orientation.

The article draws upon existing market orientation literature and musical theory to extend the authors' previous work of the need for improvisation in strategic market planning (SMP) into a wider area of market orientation.

The article evinces a conceptual matrix to illustrate four basic levels of market oriented improvisation: one‐size fits all; improvisation through alternatives; single level improvisation (SLI); and multi‐level improvisation (MLI).

The article will demonstrate the core competences of a jazz band: musical knowledge; role definition; quasi‐autonomous leadership; open communication; and self‐reflexivity. It will discuss how these competences are directly transferable to market oriented organisations.

The article provides a new definition of market orientation, which posits improvisation as a central element.

In this study, we applied the strategy-as-practice (SAP) framework to analyse strategic communication practices. SAP implies approaching strategy as something that organisational members do and is useful for understanding the tensions between emergence and formalisation and between planning and improvisation that characterise the everyday communication work of communication practitioners.

The paper is based on an ethnographic study of a record company and on qualitative interviews with various actors from the music industry.

Tensions exist between the emergence of inputs from active consumers that require flexibility and attempts to strategically formalise and continuously adapt plans and encourage consumers to act in anticipated ways. The findings revealed five strategic communication practices—meetings, working in the office, gathering and analysing consumer engagement and related data, collaboration and storytelling—that practitioners used to conduct strategic communication and navigate the tensions.

The study contributes to understanding the role of strategic communication practices in contemporary organisations and how practitioners manage the tensions within them. The study shows that an SAP approach can account for improvisation and emergence, as well as planning and formalisation. It also shows how SAP resonates with emergent and agile strategic communication frameworks.

Management theory has paid scant attention to the nature and reconciliation of the tension between exploration and exploitation, in spite of its central importance to strategic renewal. This paper uses Hurst's (1995) ecocycle to frame the tension and employs complexity theory to examine how the tension manifests itself across levels and time. Improvisation is advanced as a process to reconcile and manage the tension between exploration and exploitation.