Entrepreneurship as a Platform for Pursuing Multiple Goals: A Special Issue on Sustainability, Ethics, and Entrepreneurship

Abstract

The great challenge of sustainability is addressed by firms with varying levels of social and environmental responsibility and performance. Though traditionally, firms sought a balance, we argue that this is not enough. Rather, we advocate that the natural environment be the foundation on which society resides and the economy operates. Sustainable, ethical, entrepreneurial (SEE) enterprises are moving in this direction, seeking to regenerate the environment and drive positive societal changes rather than only minimizing harm. We also note that sustainability is justified and motivated by ethical considerations and pioneered by entrepreneurial engagement. The eight articles included in this Special Issue draw from cross‐disciplinary scholarship to elaborate how SEE enterprises approach sustainability through new organizational forms, business models and innovation, and new governance mechanisms. They also emphasize the roles of institutional forces and logics, government policies and social movements for promoting or impeding sustainable practices. Collectively, they reveal new and compelling insights while spotlighting the great questions for SEE enterprise that await study.

Managing Sustainable Hybrid Organisations: A Case Study in the Agricultural Sector

“…Nevertheless, as these authors also point out, the key question is whether redefining business models to include such dimensions will bring about the transformational changes necessary to tackle the problems of sustainability that permeate our society, rather than simply tweaking the conventional commercial logic of the market. Drawing on the work of Markman et al [37] (p. 673), such changes should not follow a triple bottom line (TBL) approach, which seeks to "minimize harm", as it may be insufficient, but should prioritise, in this order, environment, society and economics in order to "regenerate the environment and drive positive societal changes".…”

Education for Sustainability beyond the Classroom: Companies Born in University Incubators

“…They practically point out obstacles and challenges of a cultural nature unianimously, of market mentality, for which they have few answers. On the one hand, their complaints are legitimate, on the other hand, they indicate that they are not referring to internal problems in their companies, their work partners, their employees or their own business, which contributes to the maintenance of organizational models and designs (Parrish, 2010;Markman et al, 2016). It is as if only external challenges are at stake, which convinces the market of the importance of their services and products.…”

“…The categories were decided a priori from the literature and a posteriori from the data. In this sense, the categories sought to identify mainly the conception of sustainability entrepreneurship and their drivers (Gast;Gundolf, & Cesinger, 2017), the entrepreneurs' reach of the initiatives (Kuchinke, 2010), whether and how they altered the organizational design (Parrish, 2010;Markman et al, 2016), which sustainability dimensions were considered (Sachs, 1986;Söderbaum, 2008), and the university's role in promoting sustainable entrepreneurship (Cincera et al, 2018). After successive revisions, six thematic axes were selected: a) project selection among the incubators, b) the sources and nature of the incubators' socio-environmental concern, c) the meaning of sustainability for these entrepreneurs, d) how they put these principles into action in their business plans, e) the difficulties and challenges in meeting socio-environmental goals in their companies, f) the incubator's role in fostering sustainable businesses.…”

“…There is a need to develop new organizational forms, innovative business models, and new governance mechanisms (Markman et al, 2016). For Parrish (2010) In summary, the meaning of business success, and the way it is measured, using more than quantitative metrics, changes in this context.…”

“…From this perspective, sustainable entrepreneurship is defined as the performance of sustainable innovation with the objective of reaching a mass market and benefiting a broad section of society. As Markman et al (2016) emphasized, there is a need to encourage ethical and sustainable entrepreneurship not only to minimize harms but also seek to regenerate the environment and generate positive societal changes.…”