Metis and the Art of Serendipity

Copeland, Samantha

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-84478-3_3

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Luck ('good things that happen to you by chance, not because of your own efforts or abilities'; Oxford Dictionary, 2021), in turn, includes the elements of value and surprise but not of agency. As the definition illustrates -and prior research acknowledges (e.g., Busch, 2020;Liu and de Rond, 2016) -luck differs from serendipity in the 'passiveness' of social actors (Copeland, 2022). While serendipity relies on social actors' ability to turn unexpected events into positive outcomes -and thus represents a process that can be influenced -luck as a mere event is beyond the influence of social actors (Austin, 2003;Bawden, 1986).…”

Section: Conceptualizing and Demarcating Serendipity In The Organizat...mentioning

confidence: 95%

Towards a Theory of Serendipity: A Systematic Review and Conceptualization

Busch

2022

J Management Studies

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Serendipity – the notion of making surprising and valuable discoveries – plays a major role in the success of individuals and organizations alike. Previous research has established the importance of serendipity and identified important individual‐ and organizational‐level antecedents. However, the literature has been dispersed and the boundaries of the concept have been blurry, leading to a lack of conceptual clarity and structure, and thus limiting validity and managerial actionability. Based on a systematic literature review, I synthesize existing management‐related research on serendipity and explicate the emergence and composition of serendipity in the organizational context. I first identify three necessary conditions that differentiate serendipity from related concepts such as luck or targeted innovation: agency, surprise, and value. Then, I draw from the literature on sensemaking, event‐based theorizing, and quantum‐based approaches to management to conceptualize the process of cultivating serendipity in the organizational context as a process of enabling potentiality and materialization, and develop a multi‐level theory of (cultivating) serendipity. This conceptualization contributes to our collective understanding of how, why, and when (i.e., under what conditions) organizations can leverage the value in the unexpected, which opens up fruitful avenues for further research.

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Section: Conceptualizing and Demarcating Serendipity In The Organizat...mentioning

confidence: 95%

Towards a Theory of Serendipity: A Systematic Review and Conceptualization

Busch

2022

J Management Studies

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“…Knowing what is unexpected underlies much expertise in artistic and creative domains. Although related to ideas of practical wisdom or tacit understanding, Copeland (2022) reminds us of the notion of metis which can be summarised as ‘cunning wisdom’ and which she tells us is about responsiveness to a situation rather than a set of fixed ‘knowledge’. This may be closer to the attunement in the SCM.…”

Section: The Serendipitous Cognition Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accidental Thinking: A Model of Serendipity’s Cognitive Processes

Ross

2024

Review of General Psychology

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Serendipity captures the interaction between a skilled human agent and a fortuitous event in the environment. Although it features in many stories of invention and discovery, its antecedents remain elusive. This paper combines research from different domains of psychology to present a model of the cognitive processes required for a serendipitous episode to occur. The model describes a prepared mind that consists of an informational state and an attentional state. Both states are considered as dynamic rather than fixed. An accident is then the trigger event that updates both of these and feeds information back into the prepared mind. If the accident is noticed, a cycle of judgement and amplification occurs, eventually leading to an output. The model generates novel predictions that point to an increased understanding of how best to scaffold serendipitous moments.

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Creative Ignorance

Ross

2022

Synthese Library

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Metis and the Art of Serendipity

Cited by 4 publications

References 39 publications

Towards a Theory of Serendipity: A Systematic Review and Conceptualization

Towards a Theory of Serendipity: A Systematic Review and Conceptualization

Accidental Thinking: A Model of Serendipity’s Cognitive Processes

Creative Ignorance

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