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Serendipitous Strategy: How Chance Events Shape Organizational Direction and Decision-Making

 

 

Dr. Pradeep Munda1, Mr. Amitabh Chandan2, Mr. Vaivaw Kumar Singh3

1Assistant Professor, Department of Management, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India

2Assistant Professor, Department of Management, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India

3Research Scholar, Faculty of Business Management, Sarala Birla University, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India

p.munda@bitmesra.ac.in1 ; amitabhchandan@bitmesra.ac.in2 ; vaivawsingh@gmail.com3

 

 

Abstract: Traditional strategy research has largely been focussed on rational, deliberate, and predictive planning processes as the main source of organizational success (Ansoff, 1965; Porter, 1980). However, the evidence both from the past and present, is that many of the strategic turnarounds and shifts originate in unplanned, lucky events rather than in the formalized decision, making (Mintzberg & Waters, 1985; Merton & Barber, 2004). This article deals with the idea of serendipitous strategy which is the organization's ability to recognize, understand, and make use of the unexpected events that lead to the important strategic redirection. By examining emergent strategy, complexity, and organizational learning, the study proposes that lucky hits are not just random but serve as an adaptive means by which companies deal with uncertainty and innovation (Cohen & Levinthal, 1990; Stacey, 1995).

The research, through an integrative literature review and case, based synthesis, documents how companies like 3M, Pfizer, and Google converted their inadvertent discoveries into intentional strategic moves. These cases demonstrate that the capacity to exploit serendipity is influenced by the presence of certain enablers in the context such as absorptive capacity, organizational slack, psychological safety, and interpretive flexibility. This paper offers a conceptual framework that explicates how the happenstance of learning from the inside can be a way of interaction with the external world to influence decision, making and long, term strategic direction. This work, by repositioning chance as a valuable asset rather than a disruptive anomaly, thus, it helps scholars and practitioners to rethink unpredictability's role in the evolution of and success of the organization.

Keywords: Serendipitous strategy; emergent strategy; organizational learning; absorptive capacity; complexity theory; strategic management.

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