It is not a panacea! The conditional effect of bricolage in SME opportunity exploitation

Previous literature has recommended that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) use bricolage to exploit opportunities. However, some authors have warned that the abuse of bricolage might extrude standardized resources from a firm's resource portfolio and lower firm performance. Basing itself on resource management, this article suggests that medium-sized firms benefit less from bricolage because they are more formalized and can afford standardized resources. If they rely too heavily on bricolage, they can fail to adopt the optimal solutions for the exploitation of recognizable opportunities. Data from 336 Chinese SMEs indicates that the moderating effect of bricolage on the relationship between opportunity recognition and SME performance is weaker in medium than in small-sized firms. This study contributes to the literature by elaborating how bricolage influences firms in distinct resource environments.