Entrepreneurial bricolage in the aftermath of a shock. Insights from Greek SMEs

Abstract

The world has seen several waves of economic crises, which have had a severe impact on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), such as the Great Depression of the 1930s, the financial crisis in the late 2000s and, most recently, the global COVID-19, because they strip SMEs from their much needed resources. Prior research suggests that SMEs use bricolage to cope with such negative external shocks. While there is a rich discussion on how SMEs carry out their bricolage processes, the literature provides little empirical evidence on what actually happens in times of crisis. To examine whether the SME bricolage process described in the literature is consistent with how SMEs use bricolage when they face a business environment crisis, we conducted a qualitative study of six SMEs’ response to the austerity measures of the bailout programme for Greece, scheduled by the EU, ECB and IMF, which were known to have unambiguously led to the deterioration of the SME business environment. We found that bricolage occurred across all SMEs’ activities as expected. However, contrary to the literature, we found that bricolage did not lead the strategic approach of any of the investigated SMEs. Rather, bricolage was integrated within their overall strategy. Furthermore, we found that how the bricolage is unrolled depends on the SME sector. With this knowledge, the present study suggests policymakers need to adjust their support system towards enabling resource-constrained SMEs to deal with the aftermath of negative shocks in their business environment.

RÉSUMÉ

Le monde a connu plusieurs vagues de crises économiques qui ont eu un grave impact sur les petites et moyennes entreprises (PME), telles que la Grande Dépression des années 30, la crise financière de la fin des années 2000 et, plus récemment, l’épidémie mondiale de COVID-19, parce que ces crises privent les PME des ressources dont elles ont grandement besoin. Des recherches antérieures suggèrent que les PME font du bricolage pour faire face à de tels chocs externes négatifs. Bien qu’il y ait un riche débat sur la manière dont les PME procèdent avec ce bricolage, la littérature ne fournit que peu de données empiriques sur ce qu’il se passe réellement en temps de crise. Afin d’examiner si le processus de bricolage décrit dans la littérature est cohérent avec la manière dont les PME ont recours au bricolage lorsqu’elles sont confrontées à une crise de l’environnement des affaires, nous avons mené une étude qualitative sur la riposte de six PME aux mesures d’austérité du programme de sauvetage financier de la Grèce, planifié par l’UE, la BCE et le FMI, dont on sait qu’elles ont conduit sans ambiguïté à la détérioration de l’environnement des PME. Comme nous nous y attendions, nous avons constaté que le bricolage se pratiquait dans toutes les activités des PME. Cependant, contrairement à la littérature, nous avons constaté que le bricolage n’était intégré à l’approche stratégique d’aucune des PME examinées. De fait, il était plutôt intégré dans la stratégie globale de ces PME. De plus, notre étude a révélé que la façon dont le bricolage se déroule dépend du secteur des PME qui y ont recours. Sur foi de ces résultats, cette étude suggère que les décideurs politiques doivent adapter leur système de soutien pour permettre aux PME à ressources limitées de faire face aux conséquences des chocs négatifs subis par leur environnement commercial.

Keywords:

• Entrepreneurship
• entrepreneurial bricolage
• SMEs
• crisis

Mots-clés :

• entrepreneuriat
• environnement sans ressources
• bricolage entrepreneurial
• PME
• crise

Acknowledgements

Early results of the present survey were presented in I.CO.D.ECON. 2018 conference, Kalamata, Greece. The authors are grateful to the six firm owners who provided the requested interviews.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The owners hired cheaply an old furnace for a period at their laboratory, but this was not considered typical for bricolage reuse of materials.

2 The owner describes in the narrative that the team refused an offer to replicate existing ceramic plates that could secure high profit for the company because this would alter the vision of the enterprise to remain authentic.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Theodora Tsilika

Theodora Tsilika is an Economics graduate from the University of Peloponnese. Her research interests concern innovation processes in SMEs and regional development.

Alexandros Kakouris

Alexandros Kakouris is an adjunct lecturer at Hellenic Open University and at University of Peloponnese. His research interests concern innovative entrepreneurship, teaching and learning.

Nikolaos Apostolopoulos

Nikolaos Apostolopoulos is an Assistant Professor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Neapolis University Pafos and Scientific Advisor at Labour Institute of GSEE.

Zacharias Dermatis

Zacharias Dermatis holds his PhD in Health Informatics. He is a member of the teaching staff at the Department of Management Science and Technology, University of Peloponnese.