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Always Playable: Recombining Routines for Creative Efficiency at Ubisoft Montreal’s Video Game Studio

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  • Patrick S. Cohendet

    (Department of International Business, HEC Montréal, Montréal, Quebec H3T 2A7, Canada)

  • Laurent O. Simon

    (Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, HEC Montréal, Montréal, Quebec H3T 2A7, Canada)

Abstract

This study examines how an organization can redefine its core process when faced with a major crisis of creative efficiency. We analyze the case of the experimentation of the “Always Playable” project at Ubisoft Montreal, a leading video game development studio, where a crisis of creativity triggered an active reconfiguration of routines and their artifacts. To address this crisis, the organization attempted to restore a balance between efficiency and flexibility by modifying the generative relationship among the ostensive aspect, the performative aspect, and artifacts of routines. Our study shows that one way to reach this balance is by deliberately breaking, partitioning, and recombining aspects from different routines.

Suggested Citation

  • Patrick S. Cohendet & Laurent O. Simon, 2016. "Always Playable: Recombining Routines for Creative Efficiency at Ubisoft Montreal’s Video Game Studio," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(3), pages 614-632, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:27:y:2016:i:3:p:614-632
    DOI: 10.1287/orsc.2016.1062
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    3. Thomas Paris & Gerald Lang & David Massé, 2019. "Polarized Worlds and Contextual Creativity in Creative Industries: The Case of Creation Processes in the Perfume Industry [Mundos polarizados y creatividad contextual en las industrias creativas: e," Post-Print hal-03066164, HAL.
    4. Davies, Andrew & Frederiksen, Lars & Cacciatori, Eugenia & Hartmann, Andreas, 2018. "The long and winding road: Routine creation and replication in multi-site organizations," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(8), pages 1403-1417.
    5. Chiambaretto, Paul & Massé, David & Mirc, Nicola, 2019. "“All for One and One for All?” - Knowledge broker roles in managing tensions of internal coopetition: The Ubisoft case," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 584-600.
    6. Steele, Logan M. & Watts, Logan L., 2022. "Managing technical innovation: A systematic review of 11 leader functions," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    7. Martha S. Feldman & Brian T. Pentland & Luciana D’Adderio & Nathalie Lazaric, 2016. "Beyond Routines as Things: Introduction to the Special Issue on Routine Dynamics," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(3), pages 505-513, June.
    8. Anja Danner-Schröder, 2021. "Without actors, there is no action: How interpersonal interactions help to explain routine dynamics," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(7), pages 1913-1936, October.

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