Bricolage: Making Do With What is at Hand

Entrepreneurial bricolage is the art of making do by applying combinations of the resources at hand to new opportunities or problems. The Stones expressed the basic concept of bricolage well in their lyrics: “You can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you might find … you get what you need!”. This is a relevant mode of thinking/cognition for entrepreneurs trying to seize an opportunity or solve a problem when faced with inadequate resources (i.e. a lot of the time!) and ideally want to take some action to ‘get going’.

Baker & Nelson initiated research of the application of bricolage to entrepreneurship in the 2000s (Baker actually reviewed this book chapter) and identified several elements that characterize “entrepreneurial bricolage”. These include making do, resources available, a rejection of commonly-accepted limitations on resources, and new challenges.

Making Do: A bricoleur has a bias for action – rather than contemplate whether a solution is feasible, they need to generate a workable solution (e.g. create a prototype) using ‘available resources’. But note that the action bias is integrated with the bricoleur’s idiosyncratic thinking and experimental mindset that might go like this: ‘What can I do given what I have to work with?’ The “I” is significant and signifies different bricoleurs may concoct different solutions.

Resources Available: The bricoleur’s view of ‘resources at hand’ distinguishes their approach from resource-seeking behaviour. Resources can be physical (materials, tools), human (intellectual & connections), information, and financial. The ‘art’ part derives from combining them in innovative, functional ways that are valuable. Bricoleurs are notorious for accumulating resources than for no other reason than to build a trove (I’m thinking of my grandfather’s workshop where my brothers & I could play for hours constructing ‘toys’ from wood, wire, pipe, fasteners, etc. using hammers, screwdrivers, pliers, vises, and an anvil – sometimes with a purpose, sometimes not.). Constraints may be perceived as the limit of what is currently ‘in stock’. But often the need to act quickly to concoct a solution can drive the bricoleur to look beyond what is provided in the current environment (e.g. asking my grandfather what other lumber might exist in the garage, or at a neighbour’s). Some of you may have experienced similar activity in group exercises where 4-5 people are given a set of materials and an objective to create a device in competition with other groups. You combine those materials using your members’ know-how, conceptualizations of each item’s service potential, and experimental ideas, in a trial & error sort-of-way. Each group is likely to create differentiated solutions. That’s bricolage.

Rejection of Conventional Resource Constraints: An entrepreneurial bricoleur refuses to accept socially-constructed limitations on resources. For example, in one of my start-up ventures, I needed to fund the production of a plastic injection mould while the enterprise was pre-revenue. Conventional debt financing was not available since the enterprise had no track record of generating cash flow to repay debt (a socially-constructed constraint). It was too early for venture capital. But, we had a significant prospective customer prepared to be an early adopter so I was able to parlay their interest into a 30% deposit on a sizable order. These funds were sufficient to produce the mould and the initial order. This was an innovation at that time, based on my financial background and understanding of stakeholder need. It predated the advent of crowdfunding but that could now provide another extension to the bricoleur’s resource trove. As bricolage involves a certain mindset, a constructivist approach to resource environments (starting by imagining how to create possibilities, especially understanding what others need/want) may be more fruitful than objectivist views (accepting the way things are, because that is the way they have been).

New Challenges: A bricoleur’s thinking can involve different conceptions of inputs or outputs. For example, one can repurposes resources – using them in ways that are different from their original intended purpose. Or, one can combine resources to create innovative outputs – new product or services from existing resources (e.g. crumbling used tires to create additives for constructing roads and playgrounds, with the added bonus of a low or zero cost of materials).

Neither bricolage nor the bricoleur is unique to entrepreneurship. Bricolage is a set of cognitive-based, innovative/creative behaviours that typically involve ‘doing more with less’ – a common phrase these days.