<p>Organizations in challenging resource environments engage in bricolage by manipulating and experimenting with imperfect resources to generate creative solutions. Bricolage has been commonly described in research as a tool, a method or a strategy that helps organizations sustain in conditions of lack. These terms emphasize the process view that has dominated bricolage research in organizations. Our study of resource-constrained organizations in India reveals that bricolage is a deeply embedded approach that permeates the working of these organizations beyond a consciously chosen process. It emerges as a dimension of organizational identity, and is strongly aligned to organizational values and memory. We undertake multi-case study research of performing arts organizations and find that the need to preserve artistic autonomy, a community-centered existence and a proud history of bricolage underlie the bricolage identity in these organizations. Further, ongoing practices of resource accumulation and reconstruction perpetuate bricolage behaviors and embed bricolage as an identity dimension. Similar to the conception of the individual bricoleur, the pattern of bricolage in an organization can define its essence and determine its manner of functioning. We underline that the understanding of bricolage as a functional response in organizations is inadequate, and fill a critical gap in explaining why and how organizations consistently engage in bricolage behaviors.</p>