Learning to cope with resource constraints and uncertainty: entrepreneurs practising purposefully.

In this paper, we argue that by dealing with resource constraints when facing situations of uncertainty, entrepreneurs engage in a number of activities to manage the ambiguity they face. In other words, we explore how entrepreneurs respond when learning in crisis mode and how they manage to recover or deal with constrained contexts they face. We report our findings from the analysis of significant learning episodes in 23 SMEs. Our contribution is to identify purposeful practices through which the entrepreneurs enlarge their potential solution space. They do this by gradual accretion of capability, thereby expanding the repertoire of potential action. By accretion in this context, we refer to the grafting and borrowing of capabilities into the firm’s action frame dependent on proximities, salience and relationships.http://www.olkc2012.com/images/stories/conference/120.pd