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.