Beyond Resource Munificence: Rethinking Sustainable Procurement Strategy Through Frugal Innovation and Contingency Perspectives

ABSTRACT Although sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) scholarship has extensively documented the importance of sustainable procurement practices, it has been developed predominantly in resource‐rich Western contexts where organizations possess adequate financial, technological, and infrastructural resources. This theoretical bias creates significant gaps in understanding how manufacturing firms in resource‐constrained African environments navigate sustainability imperatives. Drawing on frugal innovation theory and contingency theory, we advance a theoretical model proposing that resource constraints (comprising financial, technological, infrastructural, and human capital dimensions) positively influence sustainable procurement practices both directly and indirectly through procurement improvisation capability. We further theorize that survival‐oriented culture amplifies the positive relationship between resource constraints and sustainable procurement practices. We validated our model using hierarchical regression analysis and bootstrapping techniques applied to two‐wave survey data from 400 manufacturing firms in Ghana. The results reveal that all four constraint dimensions positively influence sustainable procurement practices and procurement improvisation capability. Procurement improvisation capability mediates the resource constraint and sustainable procurement relationship, demonstrating that constraints stimulate adaptive capability development that subsequently enables contextually appropriate sustainability implementation. Survival‐oriented culture significantly strengthens the positive constraint and sustainability relationship, confirming that survival‐oriented culture acts as a boundary condition that strengthens the positive effect of resource constraints on sustainable procurement practices. These findings challenge prevailing SSCM assumptions about resource prerequisites for sustainability and reveal frugal procurement innovation as an alternative pathway to sustainability in emerging economies. Our study extends SSCM theory, contingency theory, and frugal innovation theory while offering actionable insights for managers and policymakers supporting sustainable procurement transitions in resource‐constrained developing economies.