Unexpected events are intrinsic components of innovative activities, processes that by their idiosyncratic nature, have likelihoods that are impossible to foresee. 

Scientific creativity is associated with search processes that are “ill-defined” (Klahr and Dunbar 1988), with the initial state poorly specified, and the goals ambiguous. Many great ideas, scientific discoveries, and game-changing inventions happen thanks to unplanned events like fortuitous coincidences or multiple failed attempts. Yet, exactly because they are not easy to plan or foretell, most management literature assumes these events should be avoided or limited. For instance, failures tend to be considered errors or mistakes, whereas there are contexts where they can be valuable. Similarly, serendipity and uncertainty are constantly minimized, yet they are integral parts of how individuals search, learn, memorize, and forge the structures of novel ideas.

This PDW aims to advance the debate on how organizations can better manage and capture value from unexpected events when they are supposed to be embraced rather than avoided if we want to accomplish breakthrough ideas that can benefit society. Specifically, this workshop focuses on two key domains: innovation failures (i.e., managing and capturing value from unexpected adverse events) and serendipity (i.e., managing and capturing value from unexpected positive events).

The invited scholars will first introduce the main arguments and then facilitate various roundtables in the form of "research incubators". Participants are recommended to join with a preliminary draft of their research projects, research ideas, or novel methodological approaches. The organizers will collect the main insights in a report to outline future research agendas and collaboration opportunities.

The first part (the panel session) is open to all. The second part of the workshop (60 min) will be open to pre-registered participants only. Participants will be allocated to roundtables (“research incubators”) before the event based on their expressed preference, profile, research interests, proposed inputs, and order of registration. Each research incubator will be chaired by one or more invited speakers and will cover a specific presented topic area. There will be the possibility for one “virtual” roundtable, based on expressed preferences.

Each research incubator will include one (or more) of the following activities: (1) ideas generation, providing opportunities for brainstorming; (2) ideas validation, discussing, assessing, and collecting feedback from proposed ideas; (3) ideas implementation, finding potential co-authorship opportunities, validating methodologies, and boosting the development of research projects.

Interested participants should pre-register by emailing marchesini.pdw@gmail.com by July 17, 2022. 

Registration emails should include the following information: 

(i) name, affiliation, and current position; 

(ii) one facilitator/topic area preference; 

(iii) research interests and/or reasons why they are interested in the workshop, including types of inputs planning to bring to the incubators. Examples of inputs that participants can bring to the research incubator are (but are not limited to): a research project currently under development; an early-stage research project idea to engage in preliminary debates; competencies and expertise; a proposal of data or novel methodological approaches; a set of well-defined research questions. In particular, participants in bringing and proposing their inputs should think about questions such as: What are the main theoretical gaps and limitations of our current understanding of the topic? What are the empirical challenges? How do you think this topic should be addressed?