Serendipity

Conceptual Overview

Serendipity results from the combination of three factors. The first is the set of precipitating conditions that, when present, increase the chances for serendipitous discovery—temporal happenstance, active learning, and relationships. The second factor is the search for a solution for an envisioned problem. The third factor is bisociation; that is, that when looking for a solution to a problem, people combine previously unrelated matrices of skills or information. This combination leads to [Page 1407]an unexpected, serendipitous solution for another problem.

Gary Fine and James Deegan consider the temporal, analytical, and social/relational conditions of serendipity. Unexpected discoveries may occur because people are in the right place at the right time. Time has been mostly researched in the organizational field as a domain of prediction and regularity, but there is another side in the relationship between time and organization: Temporal happenstance is sometimes a domain of unsuspected discovery. People discover things because they were lucky to be present when something happened, an idea that resonates with Carl Jung's concept of synchronicity, or the occurrence of meaningful coincidences in time.

Serendipitous discovery also involves active learning and analysis. Despite its accidental nature, people discover things by accident when they make a purposeful search effort. Following Henry Mintzberg and Frances Westley, people may learn through analysis, intuition, or improvisation. In the first case, a structured process of analysis may lead to surprising findings. In the case of intuition, learning results from establishing connections that were not previously proposed. In the improvisational mode, people act in order to learn.

Relational serendipity refers to accidental discovery as a result of social connections and interactions. Serendipity travels in good social networks, in which people are willing to open up to friends, and where friends with pertinent knowledge potentially provide unexpected solutions. Meetings and social events provide unplanned and unstructured opportunities that may facilitate the serendipitous learning process. Serendipitous discoveries may be accidental but they are not fortuitous. They can involve a deliberate process of search for a solution to problem. When acting, the chances of learning increase. This happens because action is an important stimulus for learning. Therefore, the discovery of something unexpected involves a search process. It is this exploratory effort that creates the willingness to learn, which ends up producing the unexpected discovery.

As identified by Arthur Koestler, bisociation occurs when someone combines previously unrelated matrices of skills or information. After a period of mental incubation, matrices are related and a new way of representing a problem emerges. This bisociative process occurs when unsuspected connections or hidden analogies are revealed, enabling the development of creativity. These analogies often result from serendipitous links between information sources. Individuals engaged in bisociation may discover unexpected things due to their new ways of approaching a problem. These new ways of seeing have been given a number of labels—“flashes of insight” and “illuminations,” among others. When the organization facilitates the circulation of information and the sharing of people's knowledge, novel ideas emerge more easily. Hence the interest in the notion of social capital: Firms with higher social capital tend to facilitate knowledge creation and intuitive discovery in bisociative ways. People may only find the solution to a problem they have been dealing with for a long time upon contact with experts in different fields that facilitate bisociative efforts.

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