Social entrepreneurs’ use of spatial bricolage to create frugal innovation in a divided urban setting

IF 1.2 Q4 MANAGEMENT

Africa Journal of Management Pub Date : 2022-06-01 DOI:10.1080/23322373.2022.2071578

Susanne Nilsson, Mikael Samuelsson, Camille Meyer

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引用次数: 2

Abstract

This study examines how social entrepreneurs mobilize resources to innovate in divided urban settings. Over a period of two years, we followed four social start-up entrepreneurs in the city of Cape Town, South Africa, characterized by some of the highest inequality levels in the world. We analyzed how social entrepreneurs navigate this urban divided context to mobilize resources from both resource-affluent and resource-constrained spaces to achieve innovation. Our findings suggest that these entrepreneurs use bridging and building approaches that cross over between spatial and digital spaces. Specifically, we discovered that social entrepreneurs mobilize resources using four distinct types of spaces and observed that they make use of these very spaces in their bricolage, hence expanding their portfolio of resources at hand. Based in our analysis, we build on the recently introduced concept of spatial bricolage to develop the notion of spatial awareness. By identifying a link between spatial awareness and frugal innovation, we contribute to the literature on social entrepreneurship and innovation in the African context.

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社会企业家利用空间拼贴在一个分裂的城市环境中创造节俭的创新

这项研究考察了社会企业家如何在分裂的城市环境中调动资源进行创新。在两年的时间里，我们跟踪了南非开普敦市的四位社会创业者，开普敦是世界上不平等程度最高的城市之一。我们分析了社会企业家如何在这种城市分裂的背景下，从资源丰富和资源受限的空间调动资源来实现创新。我们的研究结果表明，这些企业家使用的是跨越空间和数字空间的桥接和构建方法。具体而言，我们发现社会企业家使用四种不同类型的空间来调动资源，并观察到他们在拼凑中利用了这些空间，从而扩大了手头的资源组合。基于我们的分析，我们在最近引入的空间拼凑概念的基础上发展了空间意识的概念。通过确定空间意识和节俭创新之间的联系，我们为非洲背景下的社会创业和创新文献做出了贡献。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Africa Journal of Management Business, Management and Accounting-Business and International Management

CiteScore

2.80

自引率

15.40%

发文量

期刊介绍： The beginning of the Twenty First Century has witnessed Africa’s rise and progress as one of the fastest growing and most promising regions of the world. At the same time, serious challenges remain. To sustain and speed up momentum, avoid reversal, and deal effectively with emerging challenges and opportunities, Africa needs better management scholarship, education and practice. The purpose of the Africa Journal of Management (AJOM) is to advance management theory, research, education, practice and service in Africa by promoting the production and dissemination of high quality and relevant manuscripts. AJOM is committed to publishing original, rigorous, scholarly empirical and theoretical research papers, which demonstrate clear understanding of the management literature and draw on Africa’s local indigenous knowledge, wisdom and current realities. As the first scholarly journal of the Africa Academy of Management (AFAM), AJOM gives voice to all those who are committed to advancing management scholarship, education and practice in or about Africa, for the benefit of all of Africa. AJOM welcomes manuscripts that develop, test, replicate or validate management theories, tools and methods with Africa as the starting point. The journal is open to a wide range of quality, evidence-based methodological approaches and methods that “link” “Western” management theories with Africa’s indigenous knowledge systems, methods and practice. We are particularly interested in manuscripts which address Africa’s most important development needs, challenges and opportunities as well as the big management questions of the day. We are interested in research papers which address issues of ethical conduct in different African settings.