Bricolage – a mindset of resourcefulness: Stories as a vehicle for mediating means into resources

Abstract

This study builds on the notion of viewing bricolage as a mindset of resourcefulness rather than seeing it only as a resource integration or resource scarcity. Particularly, we study service innovation processes to shed light on how entrepreneurs use stories of their experience and interactions as a vehicle for mediating means into resources. In order to understand how particular stories contribute to service innovation processes we adopt a process-based methodology (Langley, 1999; Van de Ven & Huber, 1990). Our study shows how a certain knowledge base and a worldview enabled the entrepreneur to understand the power of his own experiences, turn them into opportunities and utilise them as a source for stories of entrepreneurial outcomes. These stories then in turn mediated the available means into resources in various ways.