Effectuations, social bricolage and causation in the response to a natural disaster

2019

Reed E. Nelson Edmilson Lima

This research uses the experience of residents and a local neighborhood association in Brazil before, during, and after a major natural disaster to examine entrepreneurial action in response to a major environmental jolt. When the community of Córrego d’Antas was hit by deadly mudslides in January of 2011, residents responded over time with combinations of different varieties of effectuation, social bricolage, and gradually more causation, supporting grassroots recovery efforts. We deepen inquiry into the intersection between entrepreneurship and disaster recovery using a temporal approach, involving alternate templates and more inductive analyses. Our results include new concepts, such as diseffectuation and extended effectuation, and a deeper understanding of the relation between effectuation and bricolage that may prove useful for the study of entrepreneurial action during crises and recuperation. We close with modest propositions connecting disaster recovery and entrepreneurship.

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