The 9-Second Version.
New research suggests that an abundance of resources can actually suppress innovation.
Resource constraints force teams to be more creative, leading to more unconventional and competitive breakthroughs.
Discover.
Conventional wisdom says that resources fuel innovation.
A bigger budget, a larger team, and better tools should logically lead to better outcomes. But what if that’s not the full story?
A 2025 working paper from Harvard Business School challenges this assumption head-on. In a study of 11,853 companies, researchers Harsh Ketkar and Maria Roche explored the complex relationship between resources and innovation. Their findings suggest that certain constraints can promote more unconventional and technologically diverse outcomes.
Here’s what they discovered:
- Scarcity Breeds Ingenuity: Companies that operated with significant constraints early on were more likely to use unique and unconventional approaches to build their products.
- Abundance Breeds Convention: Teams that received a large initial budget or a sudden windfall of resources tended to become less unconventional in their methods after the resources were deployed.
Why does this happen? The researchers suggest that when resources are tight, people are forced into “bricolage”—a French word that translates to “tinkering to make do with what they have.” The constraints push them to experiment more, combining readily available tools in novel ways to solve problems. They have to be scrappy to survive.
Think.
Think of innovation as a muscle.
An abundance of resources is like an escalator—it’s a comfortable ride to the next level, but it doesn’t build any strength.
Constraints are the stairs. The climb is harder, but every step makes the team stronger and more capable for the next challenge.
Many leaders lament that their teams are stuck on the stairs, wishing for the budget to build an escalator. But this research suggests that being on the stairs is a hidden advantage. It’s the resistance that builds the creative muscle required for a true breakthrough.
The stairs aren’t a detour from innovation; they are the training ground for it.
The question isn’t how to find an escalator, but how to leverage the climb to build an unbeatable competitive advantage.
Do.
Take the stairs, practice bricolage.
This week, don’t just accept your constraints—use them as a creative brief. This simple three-step process helps you reframe any limitation into a starting point for innovation.
- State Your Constraint: Clearly write down your biggest limitation on a key project.
Example: “We have a marketing budget of zero.” - Turn It Into a Question: Reframe that statement as a “How Might We…?” question.
Example: “How might we earn our first 1,000 customers with a marketing budget of zero?” - Generate Three Answers: In just five minutes, brainstorm three distinct, actionable answers to your question. Don’t judge the ideas; just get them out.
Example Answers:
1) Create a genuinely useful free tool that solves a micro-problem for our audience.
2) Partner with a non-competing brand to cross-promote to each other’s email list.
3) Personally interview 50 potential customers and build a devoted word-of-mouth community.
This process transforms a source of frustration into a focused brainstorming session. A constraint is just a problem, but a “How Might We” question is the beginning of a solution.
To your creative success…
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About Josh
Josh Linkner is a New York Times bestselling author, serial entrepreneur, venture capital investor, professional jazz guitarist, and a globally recognized innovation expert. To learn more or to explore a collaboration, visit JoshLinkner.com
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