Navigating Between Order and Chaos: Temporal Organizing and Event Time in Hackathons

Hackathons are temporary collaborative events that have the potential to accelerate innovation. While temporal pressure – which boosts creativity – has been studied from the hackathon participants’ perspective, it is less clear how hackathon organizers orchestrate the temporal aspects of hackathons. Therefore, this research investigates the temporal organizing dynamics in hackathons, using a qualitative case study approach. We identify temporal organizing in hackathons as consisting of three main structuring processes: temporal preparation, temporal sequencing, and temporal condensation. We analyze how time pressure is used for creativity and the temporal structuration mechanisms that facilitate collaboration and innovation. Further, we examine how subjective and objective notions of time are intertwined in these accelerated innovation events and how the temporal design benefits the actors. Our research contributes to the literature on hackathon organizing and temporal organizing, and it contributes to practitioner insights on innovation contest management in time-restricted settings.