Introduction - Improvisation in organizations: A convocation, a celebration and an invitation Anne S. Miner, Antonio Cunha Meneses Abrantes, Dusya Vera, and Miguel Pina e Cunha

Part1. Conceptual linkages

1. Improvisation and bricolage: Similarities and differences between two approaches to resource scarcity Ricardo Coelho da Silva, Leid Zejnilovic, and Pedro Oliveira

2. Eight paradoxical tensions of organizational improvisation

Miguel Pina e Cunha, Medhanie Gaim, and Stewart Clegg

3. The Importance of Referents for Advancing Improvisation Theory and Methods

Jay O’Toole, Indria Handoko, and Hendro A. Tjaturpriono

4. The improvisation-serendipity nexus

Miguel Pina e Cunha and Marco Berti


Part2. Improvisation process: Before, during and after

5. The improvisational arc: A sensemaking perspective

Antonio Cunha Meneses Abrantes and Olivier Berthod

6. Preparing to be spontaneous for effective organizational improvisation

Ace V. Simpson and Stewart Clegg

7. Character and improvisation: A recursive relationship

Corey Crossan, Mary Crossan, and Cassie Ellis

8. Improvisational decision making: Context, antecedents, and outcomes

Dusya Vera, Pooya Tabesh, Susana Velez-Castrillon, Ariff Kachra, and Steve Werner

9. Improvisation, routine dynamics, and temporal regularity

Kenneth T. Goh and Claus Rerup

10. Practising strategizing: Novelty as a leap of faith expanding learning and improvising

Elena P. Antonacopoulou


Part3. Improvisation in specific contexts

11. Improvisation in Africa

Emanuel Gomes

12. Locating improvisation in public service management: Past, present, and future research directions

Ian R. Hodgkinson and Paul Hughes

13. Organizational improvisation in project management

Stephen A. Leybourne

14. Professional service firms: Why is improvisation so important?

Muriel Faden

15. Team leadership, momentum, and improvisation in extreme contexts

Bjarke Aage and Stefan Meisiek

16. Managing improvisation in dispersed settings

Massimo Magni and Likoebe Maruping


Part4. Improvisational theater beyond metaphor

17. Improvisation as a design for organizational emergence

Lukas Zenk, Ralf Wetzel, and Markus F. Pesch

18. Improvisational theater in organizations: Between company expectations and effects on individuals and teams

Cynthia Zabel and Rene Mauer

19. Theatrical improvisation for organizational improvisation education

Eduardo P. B. Davel and Fernanda P. M. Barbosa


Part5. Improvisation and new organizational forms

20. Improvising around and about boundaries in open organizations

Antonio Daood and Luca Giustiniano

21. Agility and improvisation

Allegre L. Hadida and Nathan O. Odiase

22. Flow with the go: Real-time continuous improvisation in digital business ecosystems

Pernille Ryden and Omar A. El Sawy

23. Advancing improvisation within entrepreneurship research

Michael P. Ciuchta, Lani Faith Gacula, and Cintya Gajardo-Vejar


Part6. Conceptual expansions and conclusions

24. Improvisation: A taste of chaos in the middle of order and a taste of order in the middle of chaos

Pedro Marques-Quinteiro and Rita Rueff-Lopes

25. Strategic improvisation in loosely coupled systems

Victor Meyer Jr. and Diorgenes Falcao Mamedio

26. Improvisation in organizations: A review with a phenomenological research agenda

Demetris Hadjimichael

27. Why ever stop improvising? Why endings matter for theory and practice

Anne S. Miner and Jay O’Toole

Epilogue - Improvisation in organizations: Looking ahead

Dusya Vera, Antonio Cunha Meneses Abrantes, Anne S. Miner, and Miguel Pina e Cunha