This paper revisits the sustainable entrepreneurship journey by introducing a Ôplace-basedÕ sustainable venture path model. We suggest that distinguishing between emotional (Ôcaring about the placeÕ) and instrumental (Ôusing the placeÕ) place attachment of sustainable entrepreneurs deepens our understanding of how place-based challenges of sustainable venture legitimacy are managed over time. We conclude with avenues for future sustainable entrepreneurship research.

This article provides new insight into the local institutional embeddedness of entrepreneurial behaviour. By introducing a sociological institutional framework for place-based entrepreneurship, it adds to the knowledge of the role of regulative, normative and cognitive institutions in local entrepreneurial practices in rural Central Europe. Based on extensive case studies in regions located across five countries, the analysis suggests that the influence of regulative institutions on local entrepreneurship is tempered, if not superseded, by specific place-dependent normative and cognitive institutions, and that the fit between the different institutions is decisive for the emergence of entrepreneurial practices in a specific location. The article provides explanations of why and under which conditions entrepreneurs show different change practices in rural transition and non-transition contexts. The study concludes that institutional mechanisms are place-bound, and that a place-sensitive institutional approach can serve as a fruitful way forward for developing our contextualised knowledge of entrepreneurial behaviour.

The aim of the paper is to develop a more nuanced and multilevel understanding of the social network arena in which the rural social entrepreneur operates. We introduce and empirically assess a conceptual framework for systematic investigation of rural social entrepreneurship that is informed by both social capital theory and place-based entrepreneurship literature and also suggest a methodology. We argue that this perspective can offer valuable insights into the still under-researched interplay between rural social entrepreneurs and their institutional environment. A key insight from our analysis refers to the dialectic of horizontal and vertical networking strategies typical of rural social entrepreneurs and their business model. The paper informs researchers active at the intersection of social entrepreneurship and rural development and equips them for their future studies with a consistent and empirically supported theoretical and methodological approach.