Entrepreneurial Bricolage and Disruptive Innovation: The Joint Effect of Learning From Failure and Institutional voids

ABSTRACT Disruptive innovation is increasingly recognized as a strategy for small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) to gain a competitive edge. However, SMEs often face resource constraints that create significant challenges to developing such innovation. Aiming to provide a potential solution for this problem, this study investigates how entrepreneurial bricolage can help SMEs overcome resource constraints to develop disruptive innovation in the context of emerging markets. Drawing on the resource orchestration perspective and using data from two waves of a survey involving 269 Chinese SMEs, the results indicate that entrepreneurial bricolage has a positive impact on disruptive innovation. Moreover, we find that failure‐based learning behaviors can strengthen the positive role of entrepreneurial bricolage in driving an SME's disruptive innovation, particularly when faced with high institutional voids. These findings provide compelling insights for SMEs in emerging markets seeking to gain competitive advantages through disruptive innovation.