Innovative yet Costly: The dual role of bricolage in new venture internationalization

While emerging evidence suggests that bricolage may contribute to new venture internationalization by helping overcome situations of resource scarcity, the limitations or “dark side” of bricolage have been overlooked. We present a competitive mediation framework, in which bricolage is hypothesized to have both (1) a positive effect on new venture internationalization through innovativeness and international aspirations, as well as (2) a negative effect through operating costs and international aspirations. Using a sample of 344 Australian new ventures from the four-year longitudinal CAUSEE study, the results support our hypotheses. Over time, however, the negative effect dissipates and only the positive mediated effect remains. Our work contributes quantitative evidence of competing mediation mechanisms to largely exploratory research on bricolage and internationalization and answers calls for longitudinal examinations of new venture internationalization. In doing so, we join a broader conversation on the complex relationship between bricolage and new venture outcomes and point out opportunities for further research on new venture internationalization.