Learning Through Problemistic Search and Bricolage: Evidence From Entrepreneurial Ventures

ABSTRACT Entrepreneurship in emerging economies is shaped by persistent institutional voids, resource scarcity, and volatile performance feedback. This study examines how entrepreneurs learn under such constraints by mobilizing two interrelated mechanisms: problemistic search and bricolage. Drawing on multiple qualitative case studies of first‐generation entrepreneurs in India, we trace how performance shortfalls trigger problemistic search that expands entrepreneurs' cognitive and solution spaces, while bricolage enables the recombination of available resources into workable practices. Our findings show that learning does not occur through either mechanism in isolation; rather, entrepreneurs cycle between feedback‐driven search and resource recombination, gradually stabilizing new routines and locally viable knowledge. By theorizing problemistic search as a knowledge exploration process and bricolage as knowledge recombination in action, the study advances a knowledge‐centric view of entrepreneurial learning under constraint. The paper contributes to the behavioral theory of the firm by contextualizing problemistic search in institutionally weak settings, extends knowledge management scholarship by foregrounding informal and practice‐based learning, and offers process insights for entrepreneurs navigating resource‐constrained environments.