Innovation, Bricolage and legitimacy

Innovation and bricolage activities are key processes in businesses that pose challenges for business legitimacy. The paper explores the concepts of innovation and bricolage and how they relate to business legitimacy. The paper shows how legitimacy concerns both the outcome of innovation/bricolage and the process. Key findings are that bricolage activities, i.e., solving problems by available resources, can be linked with master frames such as sustainability and circular economy that render legitimacy. However, bricolage activities are also just plausible ways of coping with limited possibilities in resource-constrained environments that may be socially recognized. Yet, the very same frames that make innovation and bricolage activity legitimate also constitute cultural repertoires for criticizing innovation and bricolage activities.