What drives micro-entrepreneurs’ value-oriented innovative behavior in microfinance: an entrepreneurial resourcefulness perspective

Abstract Drawing on the perspective of entrepreneurial resourcefulness, we investigate how relational social ties in microfinance facilitate value-oriented innovative behavior through self-reliant financial bootstrapping. We also examine how joint bootstrapping interacts with self-reliant financial bootstrapping to influence value-oriented innovative behavior among micro-entrepreneurs. We apply both symmetrical (PLS-SEM) and asymmetrical (fsQCA) approaches to a sample of 292 micro-entrepreneurs engaged in microfinance in Mexico, a developing mixed-market economy. The PLS-SEM results demonstrate that self-reliant financial bootstrapping is an effective mechanism through which relational social ties positively impact value-oriented innovative behavior. Additionally, the positive role of self-reliant financial bootstrapping in value-oriented innovative behavior is more significant when micro-entrepreneurs have a low level of joint bootstrapping. These findings are reinforced by the fsQCA results, which show that value-oriented innovative behavior arises from various configurations of relational social ties, self-reliant financial bootstrapping, joint bootstrapping, and democratic and financial factors. Our findings offer important theoretical and practical implications.