Bricolage and its Strategic Connotations: A Study of Greek Social Entrepreneurs in Times of Crisis

This study examines how social entrepreneurs contend with severe resource constraints in times of crisis. To explain entrepreneurial responses to such limitations, researchers use the concept of bricolage, which involves creatively combining scarce resources to solve problems. Although previous studies have disregarded bricolage's potential strategic connotations, this paper uses qualitative data from 44 informants in 20 Greek social enterprises to reveal the coexistence and entwinement of strategic and bricolage behaviours. The paper adopts a strategy-as-practice (SaP) lens to conceptualize this phenomenon subsequently. SaP refers to strategy as the joint actions, interactions and negotiations among actors that shape an integrated organizational whole. SaP and bricolage have fundamental commonalities (e.g. taking a practice view of inventive behaviours), making them ontologically compatible. Two reciprocal ideas emerge from this exploration: ‘formational bricolage’ can organically shape an emergent strategy, while ‘strategic bricolage’ guides and, in some instances, constrains bricolage behaviours and practices.