ABSTRACT
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-2021 and the initial critical shortage of personal protective equipment for health care workers, the maker community mobilized volunteers, borrowed and modified PPE designs, and activated local networks in a remarkable display of collective action. To understand the conditions under which their efforts succeeded, we conducted a multiple case study of emergent maker networks in four U.S. cities, focusing on their response during the early months of the pandemic. We examined how these networks self-organized for collective entrepreneurial action while facing resource constraints and legitimacy deficits. Although the maker community has often endeavored to break free from institutional constraints, they nonetheless formed working relationships with institutions in need. They deployed five learned resourcefulness strategies (improvising, focusing, satisficing, configuring, and brokering) and five learned legitimation strategies (seeking, circumventing, matching, pressuring, and leveraging) with varying degrees of effectiveness. Our findings contribute to the literature on resourcefulness, legitimation, and collective action in entrepreneurship processes.