Social entrepreneurs and activists can contribute to sustainability transitions by influencing consumer culture. This can provide a protective space to shelter new sustainability solutions from market pressures until they are ready to scale to the mass market. We study how social entrepreneurs and activists within a sustainable market niche attempt to influence consumer culture. Using grounded theory, we analyse interviews with 26 activists and social entrepreneurs in the market for alternatives to animal products in the Netherlands. We find a synergy where social entrepreneurs' strategies pull consumers into sustainable consumption while activists' strategies focus push consumers out of unsustainable consumption. These strategies contain four tactics: connecting to, showing contrast with and broadening consumers' connection to values associated with sustainable consumerism and a radical innovation tactic. We show how strategies for consumer culture change interact on the niche level of sustainability transitions to create a protective space for sustainability solutions.

This research addresses the role of sustainable demand and psychological and cultural factors in the spatial concentration of sustainable SMEs. We analyze the spatial concentration of sustainable SMEs in the restaurant sector in the Netherlands. We argue that traditional agglomeration theories can partially explain spatial concentration of sustainable SMEs, but are not sufficient in explaining the sub-sector concentration of sustainable entrepreneurs. Demand, psychological and cultural factors could explain sub-sector concentration of sustainable restaurants. We use sustainable entrepreneurship theory to explain this difference. We analyze spatial concentration of sustainable SMEs in three ways. First, we investigate spatial concentration based on all individual locations of sustainable restaurants with an average nearest neighbor analysis. Second, we analyze spatial autocorrelation with use of the Moran's I statistic. Finally, we map the clustering of sustainable restaurants with a Getis-Ord Gi* analysis. We use sustainable restaurants as a percentage of conventional restaurants in a region in the Netherlands. While controlling for conventional clustering, we find a single large cluster of sustainable restaurants. Arguably, this clustering is caused by a spatial variation of demand and individual psychological traits of sustainable entrepreneurs, which together represent a regional culture of sustainable entrepreneurship. JEL Classification E71 • L26 • R12 • Q01 Just as people cannot live without eating, so a business cannot live without profits. But most people don't live to eat, and neither must businesses live just to make profits. John Mackey (2015 p. 250).

The restaurant business is highly unsustainable and the sector contributes to a large extent to environmental pollution. However, some restaurateurs have chosen a more sustainable cuisine. As food sustainability is a contested issue, we have considered several descriptions of food sustainability and have assessed how these are influenced by a passion for hospitality. Theoretically, the choice for sustainable food can be based on a passion for the hospitality business and a passion for sustainability. Surveys were used to gather data that were analysed using logistic and linear regression models. Findings suggest that some entrepreneurs claim to serve sustainable food, but do not. Others serve only one type of sustainable food, but not the other types. Interestingly, these groups also differ in their motivations for starting their restaurants. The choice to serve sustainable food is negatively influenced by entrepreneurial passion and positively by sustainability passion. Conventional restaurants have a passion for the hospitality industry, while the restaurants that serve sustainable food do not share that hospitality passion, but rather a passion for sustainability. Our research adds to the academic debate on the tensions that restaurateurs and entrepreneurs in general face in their different motivations.