Lamberto Zollo, University of Florence (DISEI - Department of Economics and Management), Via delle Pandete 32, 50127, Florence (Italy); e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Riccardo Rialt, Zollo, University of Florence (DISEI - Department of Economics and Management), Via delle Pandete 32, 50127, Florence (Italy); e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Cristano Ciappei, University of Florence, University of Florence (DISEI - Department of Economics and Management), Via delle Pandete 32, 50127, Florence (Italy); e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Andrea Boccardi, University of Florence, , University of Florence (DISEI - Department of Economics and Management), Via delle Pandete 32, 50127, Florence (Italy); e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Abstract

Social entrepreneurship is one of the most discussed issues in recent management literature. In particular, social entrepreneurship has recently gained the attention of management scholars interested in understanding its sociological and anthropological aspects. This paper focuses on Claude Lévi-Strauss’s notion of “bricolage” and the way it can represent a significant opportunity to address emergent social needs. Building on a postmodernist philosophical perspective, namely Jacques Derrida’s “deconstructionism,” we attempt to unpack the bricolage phenomenon within the social entrepreneurship field. Following the findings of an in-depth longitudinal case study, we provide a theoretical conceptualization of possible entrepreneurial solutions to social needs, exploring the significant role of bricolage that is consequently interpreted as a suitable entrepreneurial opportunity to address particular types of social needs that we shall define, in a way, as emergent.

Keywords: social entrepreneurship, bricolage, non-profit organizations, deconstructionism, complexity, emergency management.