Perceiving Opportunity within Necessity: How the Macro-Level Environment Influences Micro-Level Entrepreneurial Intentions in Africa

Resourcefulness – using available resources in the best way possible – is one of the fundamental issues in entrepreneurship and in economics in general (Duchesneau & Gartner, 1990; Zahra & Garvis, 2000).

Though resourcefulness is a relatively new area in entrepreneurial research, various concepts like bricolage (Senyard, Baker, & and Davidsson, 2009) and effectuation (Sarasvathy, 2001) have been applied as means to understand it. Stressing different elements of resourcefulness, these concepts are based on the idea that the individual tries to make much out of little (Duchesneau & Gartner, 1990; Zahra & Garvis, 2000).

Despite the fact that resourcefulness is so centrally rooted within entrepreneurship, research on it lacks understanding from three perspectives (Williams, Zhao, George, Sonenshein, & Ucbasaran, 2019).

First, research lacks understanding of whether resourcefulness should be considered a learnable skill or a personality trait (Read & Sarasvathy, 2005). Second, research lacks understanding of how the availability of resources influences resourceful behavior and what role self-regulatory processes play in this area (Michaelis et al., 2019).

Third, research lacks understanding of the antecedents and outcomes of resourcefulness (Williams et al., 2019). To address these shortcomings, this dissertation contributes in four major ways. First, it conceptually defines and empirically validates a framework for entrepreneurial intentions in penurious environments.

Second, it advances research on entrepreneurial resourcefulness, and bricolage in particular, by extending the existing perspective of resource dependence theory (Stern, Pfeffer, & Salancik, 1979) and by introducing regulatory focus theory (Crowe & Higgins, 1997) and the learning theory of constructivism (Piaget, 1980; Vygotsky, 1986).

Third, this dissertation makes a methodological contribution by introducing social media data into the field of entrepreneurship research. Fourth and finally, the micro- and macro-level studies of this dissertation contribute to the literature of entrepreneurship in Africa.

Besides contributing to theory, this dissertation can guide politicians on how to design their country’s social and economic environment to boost entrepreneurial intentions.

Furthermore, it motivates entrepreneurs and managers to maintain high career aspirations for themselves and likewise support them in their subordinates, as the increased level of bricolage leads to higher job satisfaction.