Value-based bricolage: Resource mobilization in the circular economy

Abstract

Circular-born firms face resource constraints first, as they emphasize the use and reuse of materials as an opposite to the linear production system of taking, making, and disposing of resources, and second, due to systemic challenges like lack of scale and information on resources. Given these challenges, entrepreneurs need to find novel solutions for resource mobilization in the circular economy (CE). This study aims to identify how entrepreneurs mobilize resources to accomplish these challenges. With qualitative, multiple-case study research in circular-born firms developing a CE business model (CEBM), we identify four patterns of resource mobilization serving different purposes in the development of a CEBM. While three patterns—resource seeking, material bricolage, and ideational bricolage—are established concepts in entrepreneurship, we identify and conceptualize a fourth unique pattern in the CE: value-based bricolage. By conceptualizing the activity domains of value-based bricolage and examining the motivation and outcomes of each pattern in designing CEBMs, we provide new insights into how solutions to challenges concerning the use of resources in the CE enable circularity.