The assumption that resource-constrained organizations can access an ecosystem for human capital resources to develop their innovation capabilities fails to reflect the reality of entrepreneurs in emerging and less-developed economies. We study how a nascent organization in a resource-constrained environment developed innovation capabilities in the high-tech domain. Our longitudinal field study reveals how a simple equipment repair outfit overcame resource-related challenges and grew into a prominent venture in defense R&D via two resourcing processes: upskill resourcing, and emotional resourcing. We develop a process model to explain how these resourcing processes are intertemporally linked to enable the emergence of innovation capabilities under initially resource-poor conditions.
