Beyond Survival: Youth Entrepreneurship Through Bricolage and Effectuation in Uganda

This study examines how youth entrepreneurs in a developing economy navigate persistent resource constraints through the dynamic interplay of bricolage, effectuation and legitimacy-seeking. Drawing on qualitative data from ten in-depth case studies supported by validated entrepreneurial journey maps, the study adopts a process perspective to explore how entrepreneurial action unfolds over time in highly uncertain, resource-constrained contexts. Using thematic analysis, the findings reveal three dominant but non-exclusive developmental trajectories: Grounded Improviser, Adaptive Builder and Strategic Mobilizer, through which youth entrepreneurs combine and recombine behavioral logics in nonlinear ways. The study contributes to entrepreneurship theory by reframing bricolage and effectuation as interdependent and evolving logics embedded within an emergent entrepreneurial process, rather than as isolated strategies or sequential stages. The resulting Contextual Developmental Model advances understanding of how adaptive capacity, entrepreneurial mindset and hustle enable youth entrepreneurs to sustain and reshape their ventures under conditions of institutional fragmentation and uncertainty. Practically, the findings highlight the limitations of linear business development models and suggest the need for entrepreneurship support initiatives that foster behavioral flexibility, network leverage and legitimacy-building.