Science Research Management

Science Research Management ›› 2021, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (2): 130-137.

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The path for linking of resource bricolage and entrepreneurial opportunity recognition

Sun Yongbo1， Ding Yixin1， Wang Nan1,2   

  1. 1. School of Business, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing 100048, China；
    2. Collaborative Innovation Centre for State-owned Assets Administration, Beijing 100048, China
  • Received:2018-06-05 Revised:2018-10-30 Online:2021-02-20 Published:2021-02-23

Abstract:

The focus of entrepreneurship research is to answer "why, when and how opportunities for the creation of goods and services can be discovered, evaluated, and exploited by entrepreneurship". In recent years, with the increasing growth of China entrepreneurial activity index, the research on resource bricolage has increased sharply. How resource bricolage affects the entrepreneurial opportunity cognition has become a hot research topic. Resource bricolage explains how entrepreneurs could combine seemingly unrelated resources into valuable resources in the context of resource constraints, and further drive the opportunities cognition of entrepreneurs. However, there is a lack of attention to the path mechanism between the resource bricolage and entrepreneurial opportunity cognition. From the perspective of organizational learning, our study advances the research on the relationship between bricolage and entrepreneurial opportunity cognition through different organizational learning methods.
   The key constructs of resource bricolage. Bricolage focuses on solving the existing underestimated, idle or discarded resources, and developing the potential value of these resources by effective combination. Resource bricolage includes resources at hand, combination of resources for new purposes, and making do.

   The key constructs of organizational learning. Organizational learning is an issue of continuous concern for all types of enterprises, especially for new enterprises. They must constantly learn new knowledge from external and combine with their own knowledge to deal with opportunities and threats in the dynamic environment. Organizational learning includes cognitive learning, behavioral learning, experiential learning and action learning.

   The process of entrepreneurial opportunities cognition. The core process of opportunity cognition is to establish a dichotomy view on the structure of opportunity cognition. We believe that Alvarez and Barney′s research is very constructive, because they distinguish between opportunity discovery and opportunity construction. This classification represents the two theoretical points of the entrepreneurial opportunity.

   Through the organizational learning research on the process of the opportunity discovery and construction, this paper found three main research conclusions: First, in the opportunity discovery stage, entrepreneurs need to understand the potential value of the resources available at hand, and rely on previous experience, opportunity prototypes and opportunities alertness, and cultivate cognitive learning ability to discover and identify entrepreneurial opportunities. Second, in the opportunity construction stage, entrepreneurs recombine resources to achieve new goals, and rely on creative thinking and practices, and cultivate behavioral learning capabilities to evaluate and develop entrepreneurial opportunities. Third, from opportunity discovery to opportunity construction, entrepreneurs must get artistic improvisation, that is, applying the resources at hand to resource reconstruction. At the same time, it is also necessary to cultivate the action learning ability, to develop opportunities for discovering and identifying opportunities, and to cultivate the experience learning ability to discover and identify new opportunities after opportunity evaluation.
    This paper has three contributions. First, it focuses on analyzing the key structural dimensions of organizational learning. Second, a two-stage path of entrepreneurial opportunity cognition is constructed, that is, the opportunity discovery phase covering opportunity discovery and identification, and the opportunity construction phase of opportunity evaluation and development. Third, it analyzes the linking mechanism of the resource bricolage and entrepreneurial opportunity cognition.

Key words:  resource bricolage, opportunity recognition, discovery stage, construction stage, organizational learning