The dialectics of serendipity 1

•Preparation facilitates serendipity by providing a nucleus of competences during the search for novelty.•Openness facilitates serendipity by supporting engagement with unexpected opportunities.•Doubt facilitates serendipity by maintaining a positive tension between what an organization knows and what it does not know.

Serendipity in organizations has often been perceived as a mysterious occurrence. We approach the process of serendipity via reconsideration of Honda's entry into the US market using an alternate templates analysis, showing that serendipity can be conceptually interpreted as the synthesis of preparation and openness to novelty, articulated through generative doubt. In this sense, it can be thought of as a dialectical process that thrives through the creative synthesis of the existing and the new. It is a practical accomplishment rather than an organizational form of mystery.