Networking improvisation as a dynamic learning process: How senior executives draw on their professional networks to improvise during major crisis

Based on the experience of 54 senior executives navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, this study examines how executives respond to major crises through networking improvisation. We conceptualize networking improvisation as a dynamic learning process through which executives engage trusted professional networks to collectively make sense of unfolding disruptions, develop situated understandings of their organizational implications, enact organization-specific strategic improvisation, and continuously refine those understandings through ongoing interaction, action, and reflection. Our findings show that this process unfolds through the mutually reinforcing mechanisms of situated understanding and recursive learning, while executives’ problem-solving styles help explain why similar networking and learning processes give rise to different trajectories of strategic improvisation. By positioning networking improvisation within the organizational learning literature, we extend existing research on strategic improvisation by explaining how networking interactions generate and sustain organization-specific responses over time. Our findings challenge the conventional emphasis on preserving the organizational status quo during crises, suggesting instead that networking improvisation enables organizations to balance continuity with learning, renewal, and innovation.