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Strategic Improvising: A Routine Dynamics Perspective

Andreas Schwendener (Swiss Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland; and Zurich Centre for Creative Economies, Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland)

Simon Grand (Swiss Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland; and Zurich Centre for Creative Economies, Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland)

Routine Dynamics: Organizing in a World in Flux

ISBN: 978-1-83549-553-7, eISBN: 978-1-83549-552-0

Publication date: 22 July 2024

Abstract

In this paper, the authors study artistic improvising from a routine dynamics perspective, with a specific interest in how the performance of improvising is strategically enacted. While this dynamic is difficult to empirically study in the case of live improvisation on stage, as we know it from jazz, the specific situation of the recording studio allows the authors to investigate the research puzzle in great detail. First, the authors show how the performance of one specific routine, which the authors identify as the looping routine, makes systematic improvising possible. The authors describe how looping enables improvising through mobilizing the digital equipment in the recording studio. The authors further discuss how the performance of the looping routine allows for individual musical performances in improvising, as well as their emergence into and assembling of a coherent song and record. During the looping routine, the authors find not only artistic improvising but also strategic enactment. Therefore, the authors show how performing the looping routine in the studio enables the strategic enactment of the emerging musical patterns by the musicians and the producer. Thereby, the artistic ideas and performances of the musicians and producers involved are competitively valued and strategically positioned in view of industry-specific contexts.

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Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the members of WE ARE AVA as well as Benedikt Maile for their openness to take us into their creation process. Furthermore, we thank the editors of this volume for their perceptive feedback and valuable suggestions on previous versions of this manuscript. Finally, we thank our colleagues from the Swiss Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship of the University of St. Gallen and the Zurich Centre for Creative Economies of the Zurich University of the Arts for their encouraging discussions on previous drafts.

Citation

Schwendener, A. and Grand, S. (2024), "Strategic Improvising: A Routine Dynamics Perspective", Mahringer, C.A., Pentland, B.T., Renzl, B., Sele, K. and Spee, P. (Ed.) Routine Dynamics: Organizing in a World in Flux (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 88), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 179-201. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X20240000088009

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited