From necessity to opportunity: Scaling bricolage across resource‐constrained environments

Abstract

Research summary Enterprises in low‐resource contexts often rely on bricolage (i.e., making do by applying resources at hand to new problems). However, bricolage has traditionally been regarded as a way to temporarily get by, potentially constraining growth if continued over time. This has been explained by factors such as limited development of learning competencies. Surprisingly, we encountered a social organization appearing to use bricolage to scale extensively into a variety of locations. This puzzling observation prompted our research question: Can bricolage be scaled, and if so, how and why? We embarked on a process study of this organization, leading to a novel conceptual model of scaling bricolage: as a low‐cost replication process of heuristics, enabling fit with a diversity of local environments, as well as cross‐unit learning. Managerial summary How do organizations emerge, survive, and scale in resource‐scarce environments? Traditional scaling models tend to rely on considerable financial resources and companies often struggle to adjust to diverse contexts. In contrast, we identified and studied an organization in Sub‐Saharan Africa that we argue used simple rules to scale bricolage—making the best out of what is at hand—successfully in diverse low‐resource contexts. Our paper provides a novel conceptual model of scaling bricolage: a low‐cost replication process of heuristics, enabling fit with a diversity of local environments, as well as cross‐unit innovation and learning.

Resource Scarcity and Humanitarian Social Innovation: Observations from Hunger Relief in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…We contribute to the research on resource scarcity and its effects on innovation by social enterprises. As the literature on the enabling and detrimental effects of resource scarcity fails to consider the nuances associated with the use of organizational capabilities (Kach et al, 2016 ; Mehta & Zhu, 2015 ), we first confirm that the operating environment that underlies resource scarcity leads to the use of different capabilities for social innovation (Busch & Barkema, 2021 ). Depending on the scarcity level in ordinary operating environments, CC or AC may be applied by HSEs.…”

“…Bricolage and AC differ because bricolage is innovating with what is readily available, while AC uses external knowledge. 1 Further, bricolage and CC differ because bricolage may or may not leverage the use of external operational resources (Busch & Barkema, 2021 ). Specifically, bricolage is focused on developing innovations with limited available resources (often internal) (Senyard et al, 2014 ), whereas CC or AC do not have such a discriminating perspective.…”

Innovation for Impact: An International Business Perspective on Transforming the United Nations

“…IB research increasingly highlights the critical role of scaling in MNCs and international new ventures. It has recently also emphasized the role of digital technology (Monaghan, Tippmann, & Coviello, 2020) and development contexts (Busch & Barkema, 2020;Chliova & Ringov, 2017). Scaling is equally critical for the UN to address the SDGs.…”

The Role of Digitalization on the Internationalization Strategy of Born-Digital Companies

“…One of the common challenges for digital companies is technological uncertainty (due to the need for rapid change and innovation in R&D technology), which is occasionally fueled by a lack of resources [4,5]. Especially today, constraints characterized by a shortage of financial, human, and material resources are felt in almost all industries [6,7].…”

“…In addition, following the research on bricolage [6,9,18,19], this study posits that the internationalization strategy of born-digital (BD) companies [3,20,21] in dealing with market uncertainties, surviving, and even growing, despite resource constraints, depends on their bricolage capabilities. These companies are defined as any product or services company for which all value chain activities are digitalized at inception or soon after [21], of which some serve international customers shortly after establishment [20] and co-create value with their customers and other stakeholders [3].…”