Innovation through Constraint: A Conceptual Framework of Entrepreneurial Bricolage and Knowledge Flows

Abstract

This conceptual paper provides a behavioral explanation of the way startups in resource constrained economies pursue open innovation. Based on the bricolage perspective and the Knowledge Based View, the paper argues that entrepreneurial bricolage influences how entrepreneurs create knowledge, perceive constraints and keep relations with external partners. The framework suggests that inbound and outbound open innovation is enhanced by bricolage which makes entrepreneurs gain, adapt, and share knowledge through flexible and improvisational behavior. In the paper, the concept of knowledge bricolage is proposed as the integrative process that connects internal and external ideas with the help of the continuous recombination process. This view makes innovation under constraints as a learning and a behavioral based process and not the result of institutional frameworks or resource richness. The paper helps to develop the theory as it connects behavioral ingenuity to open innovation, provides practical advice to managers and policymakers, and provides research directions in the future to understand how innovation develops in the setting where scarcity is a standard of operation.