Grassroots entrepreneurs and social change at the bottom of the pyramid: the role of bricolage

Abstract

This study explores how entrepreneurs living and working at the ‘bottom of the pyramid’ overcome acute resource constraints to create something from nothing. In a departure from most previous studies that consider those at the bottom either as potential consumers or as recipients of aid, we look at grassroots entrepreneurs. Despite extremely challenging conditions, they are able to assemble resources and to combine and align principles of business strategy and social value creation to effect important economic and social change. Using a resource based view lens, we redirect the spotlight onto the individual entrepreneur in social entrepreneurship and extend the study of bricolage to that field. We rely on inductive methodology applied to eight cases to unpack the resource assembly process of such entrepreneurs, revealing distinctive features of bricolage such as the setting aside of cultural norms, the rejigging of domain-specific skills, and the use of spare time.

Keywords:

• Social entrepreneurs
• bricolage
• grassroots
• BOP
• RBV

Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges the very insightful comments and feedback received from two anonymous reviewers and the special issue editors. The paper also benefitted from the feedback received from the seminar participants of the Modern Asia of the Asia Center at Harvard University, the Department of Management Studies of Aalto University, and participants of the DREAMT seminar series at the University of Pavia.

Notes

1. Williams (1968, 204) defines social norms as ‘standards by reference to which behaviour is judged and approved or disapproved’.

2. This is also the case for intrapreneurial bricoleurs in MNCs (Halme, Lindeman, and Linna 2012).