From Chance to Serendipity: Knowledge Workers’ Experiences of Serendipitous Social Encounters
Serendipity refers to uncontrolled circumstances that lead to unexpected yet fortunate discoveries. The phenomenon has been studied extensively in relation to information retrieval. However, serendipity in the context of social encounters has been the subject of few empirical studies. In professiona...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2020-01-01
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| Series: | Advances in Human-Computer Interaction |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2020/1827107 |
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| _version_ | 1832547127956340736 |
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| author | Ekaterina Olshannikova Thomas Olsson Jukka Huhtamäki Susanna Paasovaara Hannu Kärkkäinen |
| author_facet | Ekaterina Olshannikova Thomas Olsson Jukka Huhtamäki Susanna Paasovaara Hannu Kärkkäinen |
| author_sort | Ekaterina Olshannikova |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Serendipity refers to uncontrolled circumstances that lead to unexpected yet fortunate discoveries. The phenomenon has been studied extensively in relation to information retrieval. However, serendipity in the context of social encounters has been the subject of few empirical studies. In professional life, social serendipity might result in benefits such as fruitful collaboration, successful recruitment, discovery of novel information, and acquisition of crucial new perspectives from peers. Despite the potential significance of serendipity, particularly for knowledge work, there is a lack of empirical understanding of related subjective experiences and the role of technology within the process of encountering unsought findings. This qualitative study investigates knowledge workers’ detailed narratives of serendipitous social encounters and the related factors through an analysis of 37 responses to an international online survey. We provide a detailed account of the experiential characteristics and contextual qualities of the reported instances of social serendipity. Finally, we discuss the seemingly minor role of technology in social serendipity and research avenues to computationally enhance social serendipity. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-0edd35dfd54a438cbd3bd7d9a3759de7 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1687-5893 1687-5907 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2020-01-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Advances in Human-Computer Interaction |
| spelling | doaj-art-0edd35dfd54a438cbd3bd7d9a3759de72025-02-03T06:45:47ZengWileyAdvances in Human-Computer Interaction1687-58931687-59072020-01-01202010.1155/2020/18271071827107From Chance to Serendipity: Knowledge Workers’ Experiences of Serendipitous Social EncountersEkaterina Olshannikova0Thomas Olsson1Jukka Huhtamäki2Susanna Paasovaara3Hannu Kärkkäinen4Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Studies, Tampere University, Kalevantie 4, 33100 Tampere, FinlandFaculty of Information Technology and Communication Studies, Tampere University, Kalevantie 4, 33100 Tampere, FinlandFaculty of Management and Business, Tampere University, Korkeakouluntie 8, 33720 Tampere, FinlandFaculty of Information Technology and Communication Studies, Tampere University, Kalevantie 4, 33100 Tampere, FinlandFaculty of Management and Business, Tampere University, Korkeakouluntie 8, 33720 Tampere, FinlandSerendipity refers to uncontrolled circumstances that lead to unexpected yet fortunate discoveries. The phenomenon has been studied extensively in relation to information retrieval. However, serendipity in the context of social encounters has been the subject of few empirical studies. In professional life, social serendipity might result in benefits such as fruitful collaboration, successful recruitment, discovery of novel information, and acquisition of crucial new perspectives from peers. Despite the potential significance of serendipity, particularly for knowledge work, there is a lack of empirical understanding of related subjective experiences and the role of technology within the process of encountering unsought findings. This qualitative study investigates knowledge workers’ detailed narratives of serendipitous social encounters and the related factors through an analysis of 37 responses to an international online survey. We provide a detailed account of the experiential characteristics and contextual qualities of the reported instances of social serendipity. Finally, we discuss the seemingly minor role of technology in social serendipity and research avenues to computationally enhance social serendipity.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2020/1827107 |
| spellingShingle | Ekaterina Olshannikova Thomas Olsson Jukka Huhtamäki Susanna Paasovaara Hannu Kärkkäinen From Chance to Serendipity: Knowledge Workers’ Experiences of Serendipitous Social Encounters Advances in Human-Computer Interaction |
| title | From Chance to Serendipity: Knowledge Workers’ Experiences of Serendipitous Social Encounters |
| title_full | From Chance to Serendipity: Knowledge Workers’ Experiences of Serendipitous Social Encounters |
| title_fullStr | From Chance to Serendipity: Knowledge Workers’ Experiences of Serendipitous Social Encounters |
| title_full_unstemmed | From Chance to Serendipity: Knowledge Workers’ Experiences of Serendipitous Social Encounters |
| title_short | From Chance to Serendipity: Knowledge Workers’ Experiences of Serendipitous Social Encounters |
| title_sort | from chance to serendipity knowledge workers experiences of serendipitous social encounters |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2020/1827107 |
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