xiii, 177 p. A print copy of this title is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / Marketing Planning is the most prescribed tool for "doing" marketing. The marketing plan's implementation schedule provides a roadmap for accomplishing a firm's stated marketing objectives. For over three decades researchers have investigated planning's link to firm performance. The consensus has been that they do improve performance although there is little empirical evidence to suggest how implementation of those plans is related. Environmental turbulence, new information and failed implementation cause firms to act outside of the planning framework. Improvisation is the contemporaneous creation and execution of an action. The extent to which firms act improvisationally has been studied, but to date there has been no empirical investigation that exposes the different types of post plan improvisations of strategic marketing plans that exist. This dissertation attempts to identify the different types of post plan improvisations (PPI) used in marketing. Using the Critical Incident Technique, 384 incidents of PPI were gathered from marketing planners and then used to create categories and systematically classify each incident. Four primary categories of causes of deviations, six categories of deviations and four categories of outcomes emerged from the data. The results provide a foundation for a theoretical model of the types of post plan improvisations in practice. This will allow further research into contextual differences that could help managers decide when to improvise and when to follow their plan. Further, by exposing the useful application of the CIT method in a new field, additional researchers might begin to use the technique to update and more deeply understand other marketing phenomenon. / Adviser: David M. Boush