A Microscopic Theory of Resource and Psychology Management under Constraint

This Open Access book shows how individuals and organizations can turn constraints into strengths and achieve meaningful results. Based on over two decades of research and fieldwork in Japan and Vietnam—covering topics like disability entrepreneurship, student ventures, community rebuilding, and everyday problem-solving—the book presents a micro-level framework connecting cognition, emotion, and action in adversity. It explains how resource “non-recognition” and hidden mismatches can be addressed through steps of appraisal and recombination, enabling people to generate value, resilience, and well-being without waiting for perfect conditions. By combining theory with narrative case studies, the book merges insights from resource-based views with positive psychology to demonstrate how happiness and performance can grow together. Written in an accessible style for general readers while maintaining scholarly rigor, it offers practitioners, students, and researchers practical tools: recognizing hidden resources, avoiding non-resource traps, designing roles and tasks, and fostering positive feedback loops of affect and efficacy. The result is a clear, evidence-based guide to living and working meaningfully within real-world constraints—beneficial for entrepreneurs, managers, educators, and anyone aiming for sustainable progress in resource-limited settings.

This book offers a rigorous and compassionate account of how people act under constraint. It isolates the appraisal–resources–emotions mechanism with rare clarity and shows, through well-chosen cases across settings, how modest shifts in framing can unlock consequential action. The result is a thoughtful, field-ready book that will serve researchers, educators, and policy makers who care about enabling enterprise where resources are tight and hopes are fragile.

Léo-Paul Dana, Professor of Entrepreneurship, Dalhousie University, Canada