Search results

This paper aims to examine the effects of two types of improvisational strategic orientation on new venture performance: defensive improvisation and creative improvisation. Moreover, this study investigates the role of entrepreneurial bricolage in mediating the transition from various types of improvisational strategic orientation to new venture performance.

This study is designed as quantitative research, employing a structural equation model and bootstrap analysis to empirically test the survey data of 249 new ventures gathered to investigate the true relationship between variables in this paper.

The findings of this study show that (1) both defensive and creative improvisation positively affect the performance of new ventures, with defensive improvisation having a stronger positive effect; (2) both internal and external bricolage positively affect new venture performance, and play varying degrees of intermediary roles in the influence that defensive and creative improvisation has on the performance of start-ups.

The following limitations apply to this study: First, this paper collects data using a cross-sectional research design, which cannot reveal dynamic changes in the research variables. Second, this study only opens the “black box” of the role of improvisational strategic orientation on new venture performance from the perspective of entrepreneurial bricolage, and the research conclusion may be biased. Finally, the external factors' contingency effect on the relationship between variables is ignored.

This study develops a theoretical research model of improvisational strategic orientation, entrepreneurial bricolage and new venture performance, and provides a thorough examination of the internal mechanisms of various types of improvisational strategic orientation on new venture performance. The research findings not only contribute to the advancement of research on improvisational strategic orientation in the context of entrepreneurship but also assist entrepreneurs in developing a correct understanding of improvisational strategic orientation.

We offer a theoretical account of how two types of bricolage influence the entrepreneurial process. The first type involves social relationships or physical or functional assets, and thus pertains to an entrepreneurʼs external resources used in the instantiation of operations of a new venture. The second type pertains to an entrepreneurʼs internal resources‐experiences, credentials, knowledge, and certifications‐which the entrepreneur appropriates, assembles, modifies and deploys in the presentation of a narrative about the entrepreneurial process. We argue that both types of bricolage are essential to the success of a venturing attempt.

The extant literature emphasizes that the perspective of bricolage is significantly augmenting the core of entrepreneurship research, and, per se, it has made considerable contributions to understanding resource mobilization and organizational processes in entrepreneurial ventures. Entrepreneurial bricolage literature lacks a unified and holistic conceptual framework that could represent a coherence of diverse bricolage forms and their related capabilities in entrepreneurship. To address this issue, this study aims to develop a comprehensive typology framework of entrepreneurial bricolage based on the theoretical synthesis of the prior research.

By comparing and synthesizing the existing bricolage forms into a holistic and persistent typology, the authors present an integrated framework of 13 bricolage capabilities that contributes to resource acquisition and resource mobilization as well as facilitate the entrepreneurial processes of opportunity recognition and opportunity exploitation in firms.

The study synthesizes a wide array of research on entrepreneurial bricolage for shaping the resource acquisition and resource mobilization processes in entrepreneurial ventures and presents a typology-based framework for further discussion and research. By mapping the existing research and relevant dimensions into a typology-based entrepreneurial bricolage framework, the study extends and contributes to the current theorizing and conceptual building.

The study would help practitioners and researchers to recognize bricolage capabilities and the common ties among them, leading to further advances in entrepreneurship theory and practice.

As the body of knowledge regarding entrepreneurial bricolage has grown, so has the number of its different forms, concepts and constructs. The authors recognize that there is distinctiveness as well as overlaps among diverse forms, concepts and constructs of entrepreneurial bricolage. Further, the authors identify a new bricolage capability that has not until now been positioned in the extant frameworks.

The case of Alpha, a group of small subsidiaries, confronted with a strong crisis following the implementation of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) in a context of financial crisis (Spanish subsidiaries) allows the authors to illustrate the dynamics of collective bricolage, from individual bricolage to intra-subsidiary bricolage and then inter-subsidiary bricolage, network and more globally a strategy of bricolage within the group. Would multi-level bricolage be a new way for companies facing more and more crises, scarcity of resources and uncertain environments?

The action research (AR) conducted by the ERP project manager – researcher – during two years (2012–2014) shows a dynamic that increases tenfold the potential of discovering at low-cost tinkered solutions that work, adapted to the specificities of the group. Bricolage includes the constitution of the repertoire of resources (material and immaterial resources and intimate knowledge of resources) and the art of bringing the different elements of the repertoire into dialogue (tests, permutations and substitutions) in order to find an arrangement that works despite limited resources (Lévi-Strauss, 1966). In order to combine the advantages of an ERP designed according to an engineer approach and the advantages of small subsidiaries (flexibility, reactivity and local adaptations) accustomed to “bricolage,” to make do with the means at hand, the group is gradually developing a “strategic bricolage” approach. This approach contributes to enriching the repertoires of resources and developing the capacity for dialogue between the elements of the different repertoires (individuals, subsidiaries, countries, activities, external network and group), which encourages the discovery of bricolage solutions that are difficult to imitate. The evaluation of the tinkered solutions at both the local and global levels allows the group to improve, enhance and disseminate them to all subsidiaries.

This study aims to investigate how bricolage and improvisation increase the opportunities for supply chain integration of contract manufacturers. Connecting bricolage/improvisation with resource dependence theory offers an appropriate theoretical lens with which to understand the increasing focus on the view that bricolage and improvisation are feasible ways to create desired resources for contract manufacturers. Such resources can then enhance the autonomy of contract manufacturers in supply chain by building contract manufacturer–supply chain partner relationship interdependencies.

Given that the primary focus of the study was whether and how contract manufacturers respond to resource constraints, namely, bricolage and improvisation and environmental uncertainty as a moderating effect of fastener contract manufacturers' supplier/buyer integration, only firms that had contractual agreements involving manufacturing services for original equipment manufacturer and/or original design manufacture data were included in this population. This study selected a population from a list of 674 fastener firms provided by the Taiwan Industrial Fastener Institute in 2020 using a mailed survey to test the hypotheses. By the beginning of 2022, 165 completed questionnaires were returned, and the total useable sample was 158.

Hypotheses are tested using 158 contract manufacturers of the Taiwanese fastener industry. Results show that bricolage can lead contract manufacturers to initiate supplier and buyer integration. The moderating effect of environmental uncertainty further strengthens the above positive relationships. Without the moderating effect of the environmental uncertainty, improvisation leads contract manufacturers to initiate only supplier but not buyer integration. However, when the moderating effect of environmental uncertainty is included, improvisation leads contract manufacturers to initiate only buyer integration.

This finding highlights the importance of the environmental uncertainty when contract manufacturers adopt bricolage/improvisation to initiate supply chain integration.

Entrepreneurship across sectors has been impacted by the paradigm of open innovation in the last few decades. Although Open Innovation is argued to impact firm performance the strategic building blocks of open innovation are not discussed in the prior literature. This study aims to conceptualize open innovation and identify the antecedents and outcomes of open innovation.

Using a qualitative study based on open-ended essays solicited from 47 SMEs and startups based out in Europe and the USA, the authors propose an overarching conceptual framework using a theoretical sampling approach adopted to establish data saturation and data analysis was carried out using thematic coding. Market place evidence was used for triangulation of the authors’ research framework and to establish the validity of the constructs.

Building on the entrepreneurial bricolage theory, this study proposes bricolage and Platformization of innovations as antecedents to open innovation. The study also conceptualizes open innovation by identifying three underlying dimensions for open innovation. Next, the study proposes a positive association between open innovation and firm performance. Finally, the authors discuss relevant implications with future research directions of the study.

The practical implication is the development of a sustained competitive advantage enhancing framework for entrepreneurial ventures with the help of open innovation.

With the application of the developed framework for the entrepreneurial ventures, a set of strategic activities related to open innovation can be proposed that would help these ventures to enhance their innovation and marketing capabilities, thereby helping them with a sustained competitive advantage. The present study would also help the policymakers to frame policies that help the firms with a shift toward open innovation.

Although scholars have investigated how social entrepreneurs create and develop social enterprises in the penurious stable environment, how they are created in the penurious unstable environment has yet been overlooked. The purpose of this paper is to address this research gap by exploring how internally displaced individuals, despite the lack of resources, create and develop a social enterprise to serve the other displaced population in the war and conflict zones.

Underpinned by a biographical research design, in-depth interviews with internally displaced individuals who have created social enterprises in the war and conflict zones were undertaken. Three social entrepreneurs were chosen for this study from three different social enterprises that are created by internally displaced individuals to serve the other internally displaced people of three different countries, namely, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Syria.

The single and cross-case analysis found that internally displaced individuals deploy bricolage strategy, for example, reconfiguration of pre-existing resources and competencies (both internal and external), to start up a social venture in the war and conflict zones. They utilise pre-existing internal resources, mainly human capital, and external resources, through a frugal approach towards resources acquisitions. The authors also found that the displaced social entrepreneurs utilise resources of other displaced individuals, for example, networks, volunteers, local knowledge and financial supports mainly from older arrivals, and develop their own enterprise ecosystem within the host location to co-create and co-develop social enterprise and social values for all of them.

The findings show that internally displaced individuals utilise bricolage strategies to create and develop socially entrepreneurial venture to serve other internally displaced individuals in the war and conflict zones. As the findings are based on three case studies, for confirmatory approach, a quantitative study with a large sample size is necessary. Furthermore, as the differences in economic, cultural and linguistic in between the home and host locations can have impact on the creation and the development of a social venture, they should be considered in the future studies.

This study contributes to the limited literature and studies on social entrepreneurship, specifically, to the context of unstable penurious environment. It also contributes to the literature on bricolage by extending its application from penurious stable environment to the penurious unstable environment. By exploring what and how internal and external resources are utilised to create and develop a socially entrepreneurial venture in a war and conflict zones, this study has added value to the literature on not only bricolage but also entrepreneurship in war and conflict zones.

Emerging markets play an important role in the global economy. However, a common feature of most emerging markets is that firms must operate in a resource-constrained environment. In emerging markets, global mindset is a necessary resource for firms’ global competitiveness. Although global mindset has been proven to improve export performance, the theoretical mechanism behind this relationship is less clear. Based on the resource-based on the resource-based view and capability-building perspective, this study developed a model linking global mindset, relational capability, bricolage capability, innovation, and export performance.

A survey was conducted to collect data from exporting firms in Taiwan. Subsequently, the data (n = 172) were analyzed using a partial least squares program.

The analytical results reveal that a global mindset positively influences relational and bricolage capabilities; relational capability positively affects bricolage capability; relational capability and bricolage capability have significant and direct effects on innovation; and innovation positively affects export performance.

The findings confirm that a global mindset plays a crucial role in the capability-building process, which suggests that it contributes to the development of relational and bricolage capabilities. Also, relational capability is critical for exporting firms to develop bricolage capability. Finally, innovation is an important mediating mechanism between capabilities and export performance. Therefore, exporting firms can develop their international business models on the basis of their capabilities, including relational capability and bricolage capability. These capabilities improve innovation, which, in turn, enhances export performance in a resource-constrained environment.

The crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic has had unprecedented effects around the world and particularly on vulnerable populations, such as female entrepreneurs in developing countries. They are facing a new normal, characterized by high uncertainty and resource constraints. This paper aims to use the experiential learning theory applied to entrepreneurship to propose the entrepreneurial bricolage approach to study how female entrepreneurs can overcome this type of crisis.

Within the research designs of conceptual papers, the study is situated within the model approach because the authors propose novel relationships between constructs to answer the research questions through the development of theoretical propositions.

The analysis suggests that the entrepreneurial bricolage process represents a type of strategy that allows these women to adapt to this new normal. Based on this approach, the authors suggest that crowdfunding represents a financial resource at hand for both pre-existing female entrepreneurs and new female entrepreneurs.

The theoretical implications suggest an alternative conceptual framework of the entrepreneurial bricolage process to analyse the female entrepreneurial activity in developing countries and during crisis’ contexts. The managerial implications suggest that crowdfunding is a financial resource at hand for female entrepreneurs that allow them to perform well, innovate or implement growth strategies and have more chances of surviving and growing during the crisis. Finally, the policy implications are oriented to the promotion of this kind of financial alternative and the generation of trust for users, along with the strengthening of a regulatory framework to attract more investors and entrepreneurs.

This study provides useful information on how the crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic has been affecting female entrepreneurs in developing countries. It also expands on the literature on crowdfunding in terms of its advantages as a non-traditional funding source for women.