Research summary Enterprises in low‐resource contexts often rely on bricolage (i.e., making do by applying resources at hand to new problems). However, bricolage has traditionally been regarded as a way to temporarily get by, potentially constraining growth if continued over time. This has been explained by factors such as limited development of learning competencies. Surprisingly, we encountered a social organization appearing to use bricolage to scale extensively into a variety of locations. This puzzling observation prompted our research question: Can bricolage be scaled, and if so, how and why? We embarked on a process study of this organization, leading to a novel conceptual model of scaling bricolage: as a low‐cost replication process of heuristics, enabling fit with a diversity of local environments, as well as cross‐unit learning. Managerial summary How do organizations emerge, survive, and scale in resource‐scarce environments? Traditional scaling models tend to rely on considerable financial resources and companies often struggle to adjust to diverse contexts. In contrast, we identified and studied an organization in Sub‐Saharan Africa that we argue used simple rules to scale bricolage—making the best out of what is at hand—successfully in diverse low‐resource contexts. Our paper provides a novel conceptual model of scaling bricolage: a low‐cost replication process of heuristics, enabling fit with a diversity of local environments, as well as cross‐unit innovation and learning.
Incubators often play an important role in facilitating networks for entrepreneurs. However, nascent entrepreneurs typically face high uncertainty and goal ambiguity, and which ties could provide the resources needed for achieving the respective goal is often unknown in advance. How do incubators facilitate entrepreneurs’ network embeddedness in the context of such uncertainty? Using an explorative case-study approach, we studied an incubator in Kenya, an extreme setting from an uncertainty perspective. Our findings show how in high-uncertainty contexts, a social structure that allows for flexibility can provide the conditions under which unexpected discoveries are enabled, facilitating opportunity-inducing networks.
The presented wood combustion emission study employing a logwood stove showed that four burning phases of different aerosol compositions and different amounts of emitted particulate matter (PM) occurred during a combustion batch. As a novel approach, in this study, the burning phases were defined by chemical changes in the aerosol gas phase during combustion, instead of being linked to predefined time periods or the amount of PM emissions. This deeper view into the aerosol chemistry of the different burning phases was possible by employing online mass spectrometry techniques with high time resolution. A special soft ionization technique enabled the selective detection of polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the gas phase, whereas changes in the particle phase were observed by aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS). The use of AMS allowed the description of changes in the particle phase and in the amounts of PM emitted during the burning phases, as well as verification of the observed burning phases. Finally, it was shown that the organic fraction and the amount of particles emitted during the ignition phase were main contributors to the emitted PM. The definition of these four burning phases was supported by a more detailed investigation of the chemistry of the organic matter using a Van Krevelen description (average H/C ratios of 1.32−1.64 and O/C ratios of 0.25−0.44, with individual values up to 1.4) along with our novel approach of employing positive matrix factorization (PMF) as a source apportionment tool for the separation of one emission source into different combustion-dominated processes. In addition, the highly dynamic and complex nature of wood combustion emissions was revealed by these analysis methods. It was shown that different combustion conditions have a strong impact on the amount of emitted PM. For instance, an experiment with an overloaded stove emitted a roughly 4-fold higher mass of PM compared to a stove run under the manufacturer's recommended (normal) combustion conditions. This experiment showed a much higher amount of PAHs, which are very harmful for human health.
Entrepreneurial activity differs substantially across immigrant groups in the USA, but relating self-employment rates in the US to home-country selfemployment shares has provided inconclusive results in previous studies. This paper offers new evidence on the relationship between native self-employment and the self-employment decision of immigrants and their descendants. We argue that the previous literature has neglected to account for different proxies of entrepreneurial behavior and for determinants of self-employment in the country of origin. We find mixed evidence of a significant relationship between entrepreneurial activity of US immigrants and two different measures of entrepreneurial activity in their respective countries of origin. Our findings suggest that differences in selfemployment across immigrants of different origin are to some degree an expression of the behavior acquired under varying economic and institutional environments.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.