Introduction to the Special Issue: Financial Resource Constraints and Innovation

This is an introduction to the JPIM special issue on the link between resource constraints and innovation. Before introducing the papers, we briefly review two perspectives on the role of resources in innovation management. The first, mainstream argument views adequate or even slack (rather than constrained) resources as an enabler of innovation. The second argument, currently frequented in the bottom-of-the-pyramid literature but originating much earlier, suggests that resource constraints provide a potentially highly valuable opportunity for innovation.