THE CONVERGENCE OF PLANNING AND EXECUTION - IMPROVISATION IN NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

The field of marketing strategy often makes the important assumption t hat marketing strategy should occur by first composing a plan on the b asis of a careful review of environmental and firm information and the n executing that plan. However, there are cases when the composition a nd execution of an action converge in time so that, in the limit, they occur simultaneously. The authors define such a convergence as improv isation and develop hypotheses to investigate the conditions in which improvisation is likely to occur and be effective. The authors test th ese hypotheses in a longitudinal study of new product development acti vities. Results show that organizational improvisation occurs moderate ly in organizations and that organizational memory level decreases and environmental turbulence level increases the incidence of improvisati on. Results support traditional concerns that improvisation can reduce new product effectiveness but also indicate that environmental and or ganizational factors can reduce negative effects and sometimes create a positive effect for improvisation. These results suggest that, in so me contexts, improvisation may be not only what organizations actually practice but also what they should practice to flourish.