Given the current trend toward a more sustainable and environmentally-friendly economy, the overlap between entrepreneurship and sustainability has become a key research area. Part of this trend is the emergence of ecopreneurial businesses. These businesses are pioneers in using innovation to achieve sustainable growth by exploiting market opportunities. This article presents an overview of the concepts of ecopreneurship, eco-innovation, and the ecological sector. A rigorous review of the literature in this area is presented. The results of this review show the key values and principles that are central to this new stream of research and shed light on opportunities for further research. The primary conclusion is that there is a need for collective collaboration between ecopreneurs, consumers, and producers to achieve long-term sustainability.

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PurposeThe inability to secure funding is a common problem for entrepreneurs. Crowdlending can help overcome this problem. But what motivates crowdlenders? The aim of this paper is to provide empirical evidence of two forms of investor motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic) in crowdlending in Spain by exploring the elements that affect the low percentage of equity invested.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) of 206 investors in projects posted on the crowdlending platform Colectual. FsQCA enables the identification of causal configurations that lead to a low percentage of equity invested in crowdlending. The extrinsic motivation conditions are economic return and perceived risk. For intrinsic motivation, the conditions are the corporate social responsibility (CSR) characteristics of the project and CSR reporting by the platform. The age of the investor is also considered to study whether behaviour differs across age groups.FindingsWhen investors attach high importance to economic returns (extrinsic motivation), the percentage of wealth allocated to their investment is low. In relation to intrinsic motivation, investors who attach little importance to CSR invest a low percentage of their wealth. The same is true of those who feel that Colectual's risk management is weak and those aged approximately 26 years old.Practical implicationsUnderstanding the motivations of investors can give platforms insight into the expectations of one of its main stakeholders: the backers themselves. The study also sheds light on business models where CSR is the core element. This paper thus describes a new paradigm to which other platforms can relate. It can prove useful as an incentive to integrate stakeholder concerns in other business models to create not only economic but also social value.Originality/valueInvestors' motivation is shown to be both intrinsic and extrinsic. Until now, there has been little evidence of the motivation of crowdlending investors. Methodologically, this study is also valuable. The use of fsQCA reveals the combinations of conditions that lead to the outcome (i.e. the reasons for low investment in crowdlending). Moreover, the analysis provides insight into the situation in Spain and the reasons why crowdfunding is less developed in Spain than in other European countries.