Abstract：Organizations must be responsive to the complex and turbulent environment. Organizational improvisation can provide a new explanation for organizations to make quick responses. Now more and more scholars pay special attention to this issue and the organizational improvisation has already become a new field of organizational theory. Based on the relevant literatures from the year 1990 until 2010, this paper systematically reviews the studies of organizational improvisation, including its definitions, characteristics, categories, measurements, triggers, influencing factors and the outcomes. The results indicate that theorybuilding relies more on metaphors, the concepts are ambiguous, the system is incomplete and the empirical studies are scarce. At last future research directions are put forward. These findings can not only provide theoretical insights for further research, but also have useful implications for management practice.
2012, Vol. 9 
