Resource Mobilization in International Social Entrepreneurship: Bricolage as a Mechanism of Institutional Transformation

Abstract

International entrepreneurs are often confronted with unfavorable normative, regulatory, and cognitive institutional environments. Those entrepreneurial firms that successfully navigate this uneven terrain appear to defy institutional constraint and create economic growth. Yet little is known about how ventures develop in unfavorable institutional environments, particularly in terms of social entrepreneurship. Contrary to the predominant view of resource mobilization, this article finds that social entrepreneurs confronted with institutional constraints engage in bricolage to reconfigure existing resources at hand. In the process, bricolage can act as a legitimating mechanism for institutional change. This article examines how regulatory, political, and technological institutions affect resource–mobilization in 202 technology social ventures from 45 countries. The implications for social entrepreneurship and for institutionally embedded entrepreneurial action are discussed.