Serendipity: why some organizations are luckier than others

Serendipity refers to the accidental discovery of something valuable. It is sometimes presented as an element of organizational learning but has been the object of scarce research. In this paper, I discuss the notion of serendipity in the organizational context, and elaborate a model of organizational serendipity. Four building blocks are considered: the conditions that facilitate serendipitous discovery, the search for a solution for a given problem, a process of bisociation leading to the combination of previously unrelated skills or information, and the discovery of an unexpected solution to a different problem. I also discuss what organizations can do to improve the chances of serendipity.