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Swapnil Sahoo
About
Research
  • Publications
  • Neurodiversity & Agency
  • Bricolage → Effectuation
  • Family Resourcefulness
  • Frugal Innovation
PhD
  • PhD Supervision
  • Mandatory Coursework
    • Research Design Primer
    • How to Read a Research Paper
Teaching
  • Strategic Management
    • STRAMGT 221: Strategy and Disruption
    • STRAMGT 206: Strategic Management
  • Karma Yoga
    • For B-Schools
    • For India · Mehalchauri
  • Business Simulation
  • Executive MDPs
Placement Assistance
  • Personal Interview Preparation
  • Behavioral & Leadership Interview Questions
  • Rigorous Industry Analysis
  • Case Study Preparation
  • Case Frameworks
  • Case Examples
  • Case Interview Bank
  • Guesstimates
  • Logic & Puzzles
  • General Management Interviews
  • Product Management Interview Prep
  • Strategy & Entrepreneurship Interview Prep
  • Cracking Consulting Interviews
AI Initiatives
  • AI for Educators
  • AI for Students
  • AI Mini Hackathon
    • Side Quests · AI Viva Bot
More
  • How to Build a Startup?
    • Building a Durable Advantage
    • Raising Money Without Losing the Company
    • Finding Product-Market Fit
    • Hiring Your First Five People
    • Pitching and Storytelling
  • The Entrepreneurship Shelf
  • Press & Media
  • Gallery
  • Writing
  • Spirituality
    • Bhagavad Gita · Complete Text
    • Ramcharitmanas · Complete Word Study
    • Authentic Hanuman Chalisa
    • Authentic Vishnu Sahasranama
    • Authentic Lalita Sahasranama
    • Authentic Shiva Tandava Stotram
    • Authentic Chandogya Upanishad
    • Srimad Bhagavatam · Skandha 1
  • Holistic Wellbeing
    • Mental Wellbeing
  • Comics & Fiction
    • Spider-Man
    • Superman
    • He-Man
  • Mythology
    • Mahabharata (Original)
    • Ramayana (Original)
    • Immortals · 17 profiles
  • Contact
About
Research
  • Publications
  • Neurodiversity & Agency
  • Bricolage → Effectuation
  • Family Resourcefulness
  • Frugal Innovation
PhD
  • PhD Supervision
  • Mandatory Coursework
    • Research Design Primer
    • How to Read a Research Paper
Teaching
  • Strategic Management
    • STRAMGT 221: Strategy and Disruption
    • STRAMGT 206: Strategic Management
  • Karma Yoga
    • For B-Schools
    • For India · Mehalchauri
  • Business Simulation
  • Executive MDPs
Placement Assistance
  • Personal Interview Preparation
  • Behavioral & Leadership Interview Questions
  • Rigorous Industry Analysis
  • Case Study Preparation
  • Case Frameworks
  • Case Examples
  • Case Interview Bank
  • Guesstimates
  • Logic & Puzzles
  • General Management Interviews
  • Product Management Interview Prep
  • Strategy & Entrepreneurship Interview Prep
  • Cracking Consulting Interviews
Entrepreneurship
  • How to Build a Startup?
    • Building a Durable Advantage
    • Raising Money Without Losing the Company
    • Finding Product-Market Fit
    • Hiring Your First Five People
    • Pitching and Storytelling
  • The Entrepreneurship Shelf
AI Initiatives
  • AI for Educators
  • AI for Students
  • AI Mini Hackathon
    • Side Quests · AI Viva Bot
Press & Media
More
  • Gallery
  • Writing
  • Spirituality
    • Bhagavad Gita · Complete Text
    • Ramcharitmanas · Complete Word Study
    • Authentic Hanuman Chalisa
    • Authentic Vishnu Sahasranama
    • Authentic Lalita Sahasranama
    • Authentic Shiva Tandava Stotram
    • Authentic Chandogya Upanishad
    • Srimad Bhagavatam · Skandha 1
  • Holistic Wellbeing
    • Mental Wellbeing
  • Comics & Fiction
    • Spider-Man
    • Superman
    • He-Man
  • Mythology
    • Mahabharata (Original)
    • Ramayana (Original)
    • Immortals · 17 profiles
  • Contact

Profile

  • About
  • Press & Media
Research
  • Publications
  • Neurodiversity & Agency
  • Bricolage → Effectuation
  • Family Resourcefulness
  • Frugal Innovation
PhD
  • PhD Supervision
  • Mandatory Coursework
    • Research Design Primer
    • How to Read a Research Paper
Teaching
  • Strategic Management
    • STRAMGT 221: Strategy and Disruption
    • STRAMGT 206: Strategic Management
  • Karma Yoga
    • For B-Schools
    • For India · Mehalchauri
  • Business Simulation
  • Executive MDPs
Placements
  • Personal Interview Preparation
  • Behavioral & Leadership Interview Questions
  • Rigorous Industry Analysis
  • Case Study Preparation
  • Case Frameworks
  • Case Examples
  • Case Interview Bank
  • Guesstimates
  • Logic & Puzzles
  • General Management Interviews
  • Product Management Interview Prep
  • Strategy & Entrepreneurship Interview Prep
  • Cracking Consulting Interviews
Entrepreneurship
  • How to Build a Startup?
    • Building a Durable Advantage
    • Raising Money Without Losing the Company
    • Finding Product-Market Fit
    • Hiring Your First Five People
    • Pitching and Storytelling
  • The Entrepreneurship Shelf
AI Initiatives
  • AI for Educators
  • AI for Students
  • AI Mini Hackathon
    • Side Quests · AI Viva Bot
More
  • Gallery
  • Writing
  • Spirituality
    • Bhagavad Gita · Complete Text
    • Ramcharitmanas · Complete Word Study
    • Authentic Hanuman Chalisa
    • Authentic Vishnu Sahasranama
    • Authentic Lalita Sahasranama
    • Authentic Shiva Tandava Stotram
    • Authentic Chandogya Upanishad
    • Srimad Bhagavatam · Skandha 1
  • Holistic Wellbeing
    • Mental Wellbeing
  • Comics & Fiction
    • Spider-Man
    • Superman
    • He-Man
  • Mythology
    • Mahabharata (Original)
    • Ramayana (Original)
    • Immortals · 17 profiles
  • Contact

Dr. Swapnil Sahoo

Assistant Professor · Strategy · GLIM Gurgaon

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© 2026 Dr. Swapnil Sahoo. Except where a source or licence states otherwise.

Research, teaching and field notes.

Home/Research

Research · open agenda

Creating strategic possibility under constraint.

My research asks how entrepreneurs and family firms act when conventional resources, supportive institutions and established pathways are limited. The focus is not only what resources people possess, but how cognition, materials, relationships and collective effort are mobilised into action.

Explore the four branchesStart a research conversation
Connected branches
04
Doctoral foundation
Submitted · 2024
Status
Collaboration welcome

Worth asking

What does “resourcefulness” explain that “resources” alone cannot?

  1. 01

    When a study calls a founder “resourceful,” is that a description of what happened, or a label standing in for an explanation?

  2. 02

    Which of these claims rest on the submitted 2024 thesis, and which are still open questions?

  3. 03

    If a branch's central mechanism were wrong, what would we expect to see instead?

  • Research overview
  • 01Neurodiversity & Agency
  • 02Bricolage → Effectuation
  • 03Family Resourcefulness
  • 04Frugal Innovation

01 / Unifying logic

Resourcefulness is action, not inventory.

The programme follows a shared mechanism: constraint shapes the action field; people mobilise cognitive, material and relational resources; those actions may build new capabilities and strategic possibilities. Each branch tests a different part of that sequence.

  1. Constraint

    01

    Resources and institutions are incomplete

    • •Material scarcity
    • •Institutional voids
    • •Uneven support
    →

  2. Mobilisation

    02

    People work with what is actually available

    • •Cognitive strengths
    • •Bricolage
    • •Family coordination
    →

  3. Strategic possibility

    03

    Action can widen the future choice set

    • •Entrepreneurial agency
    • •Effectuation
    • •Frugal innovation

02 / Research branches

Four ways into one larger question.

These pages are an open research map—not a repository of unpublished papers. Each branch separates what the thesis contributes from what still needs to be tested.

  1. Branch 01

    Neurodiversity & Entrepreneurial Agency

    How distinctive combinations of cognitive strengths and support needs may shape opportunity recognition, persistence and adaptation.

    Conceptual foundation · open empirical agenda

    Enter this research branch
  2. Branch 02

    From Bricolage to Effectuation

    When making do with what is at hand becomes a pathway toward a broader logic of entrepreneurial action.

    Thesis evidence · transition questions in progress

    Enter this research branch
  3. Branch 03

    Family Business Resourcefulness

    How family commitment, coordination and adaptive effort may help firms mobilise scarce resources when institutions do not work well.

    Emerging construct · validation agenda

    Enter this research branch
  4. Branch 04

    Frugal Innovation & Dynamic Capabilities

    How sensing, seizing and reconfiguring may convert family resourcefulness into useful, affordable innovation.

    Thesis model · longitudinal extension agenda

    Enter this research branch

Doctoral foundation · XLRI Jamshedpur

Entrepreneurial Resourcefulness in Resource-Constrained Environments

The thesis brings together three connected perspectives: neurodiverse entrepreneurial agency, the movement from bricolage to effectuation, and family-business resourcefulness in institutional voids. It provides the foundation for a broader agenda on inclusive entrepreneurship, family-enterprise innovation, frugal problem-solving and dynamic capabilities.

Status
Submitted doctoral thesis toward the Fellow in Management (FPM)
Institution
Xavier School of Management (XLRI), Jamshedpur
Manuscript
August 2024
Submitted
30 October 2024
Request the thesis

The full thesis is available by request. Unpublished essay manuscripts are not hosted on this website.

Thesis committee

Guidance behind the work

  • Prof. Fr. Kuruvilla Pandikattu, S.J.

    Thesis Committee Chairperson

  • Prof. Munish Thakur

    Thesis Committee Advisor

  • Prof. Rahul Shukla

    Thesis Committee Advisor

Acknowledgement

This doctoral work was shaped by the guidance of my thesis committee and by the generosity of faculty colleagues, the FPM and eFPM community, family-business leaders who shared their experiences, and my family and friends. Their questions, criticism, trust and encouragement made the work possible.

Foundational questions

  1. 01

    How do neurodiverse traits translate into entrepreneurial agency and resourcefulness under scarcity?

  2. 02

    How might family firms move from bricolage toward effectuation as legitimacy and access improve?

  3. 03

    How does family-business resourcefulness operate in institutional voids, and how might it become frugal innovation through dynamic capabilities?

Suggested thesis citation

Sahoo, S. (2024). Entrepreneurial Resourcefulness in Resource-Constrained Environments. Submitted doctoral thesis, Fellow in Management, Xavier School of Management (XLRI), Jamshedpur.

For prospective doctoral researchers

Supervision starts before the dissertation.

I supervise doctoral and pre-doctoral work in strategy, entrepreneurship and organisation theory. I take on only a few researchers in each cycle because close reading, candid feedback and regular conversation take time.

Guide

PhD Mandatory Coursework

What each mandatory component is actually for, a before-term-one checklist, and how coursework connects to how I supervise.

Read the guide

Guide

How to Read a Research Paper

The three-pass method, a reading order that isn't the printed order, and the habit that turns scattered reading into an actual literature review.

Read the guide

Build the next study together

A useful collaboration starts with a precise question.

I welcome collaboration with researchers, founders, family enterprises, incubators and institutions interested in testing and extending this agenda through longitudinal, comparative, multi-source and cross-country work.

Propose a collaborationBook a conversation (opens in a new tab)

Source note: the summaries on these pages are grounded in the submitted 2024 doctoral thesis. They distinguish thesis evidence, conceptual propositions and future questions; no unpublished paper files are distributed here.