Routines and novel outcomes: Producing discovery and invention on an ongoing basis - 21 Feb 2024

Abstract: This study examines how routine participants sustain the generation of novel outcomes on an ongoing basis, i.e., performance after performance. We address this question through a qualitative inquiry into routines for scientific discovery and invention—specifically in the form of the research project routine. We find that participants sustain the production of novel outcomes across routine performances through two self-fueling processes: ideating and capitalizing. These core processes operate in the interstices between performances, where routine participants draw upon ideas and capital arising from previous performances to generate the resources that enable successive performances. Further, we identify speculative probing and concept proofing as processes that bring together ideating and capitalizing, as they facilitate the transformation of provisional ideas and latent capital from previous performances into proven ideas and working capital that enable the production of novel outcomes in new performances. Our findings and theorizing advance understanding regarding the ongoing production of novel outcomes as well as endogenous forces driving stability and dynamics in routines—areas identified as important for routine dynamics research—and offer insights for resourcing theory.