Entrepreneurship for resilience: embeddedness in place and in trans-local grassroots networks

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to contribute to the emerging entrepreneurship research that deals with resilience by examining how embeddedness in place and in trans-local grassroots networks influences proactive entrepreneurship for local resilience. Design/methodology/approach Three theoretical propositions are developed on the basis of the existing literature. These propositions are assisted with brief empirical illustrations of grassroots innovations from the context of agri-food systems. Findings Embeddedness in place and in trans-local grassroots networks enables proactive entrepreneurship for local resilience. Social-cultural embeddedness in place facilitates access to local resources and legitimacy, and creation of social value in the community. Ecological embeddedness in place facilitates spotting and leveraging of environmental feedbacks and creation of ecological value. Embeddedness in trans-local grassroots networks provides entrepreneurs with unique resources, including globally transferable knowledge about sustainability challenges and practical solutions to these challenges. As result, entrepreneurship for resilience is explained as an embedding process. Embedding means attuning of practices to local places, as well as making global resources, including knowledge obtained in grassroots networks, work in local settings. Research limitations/implications Researchers should continue developing the emerging domain of entrepreneurship for resilience. Practical implications The objective of resilience and due respect to local environment may entail a need to consider appropriate resourcing practices and organisational models. Social implications The critical roles of place-based practices for resilience deserve more recognition in today’s globalised world. Originality/value The specific importance of the ecological dimension of embeddedness in place is emphasised. Moreover, by combining entrepreneurship and grassroots innovation literatures, which have talked past each other to date, this paper shows how local and global resources are leveraged throughout the embedding process. Thereby, it opens unexplored research avenues within the emerging domain of entrepreneurship for resilience.

Determinants of Farm Resilience to Climate Change: The Role of Farmer Entrepreneurship and Value Chain Collaborations

“…In this way, farmer adaptive capacity at the farm level is viewed as a characteristic of the farmer and the relationships that farmers develop to prepare and respond to the impacts of climate change [20]. Secondly, to explain how farmer adaptive capacity can be influenced, we build upon the so-far disconnected literature on farm resilience [21,22], supply chain resilience [23,24], entrepreneurship [25][26][27], and farmer organizations [28][29][30].…”

Social Entrepreneurship in the Leadership of Grassroots Innovation Movement: A Case Study of Joglo Tani in Yogyakarta

“…In addition, he also had fulfilled the criteria of having a trans-local grassroots network which enabled him to be proactive in building local resilience. The fundamental characteristic of the community where Joglo Tani grew, was socio-cultural cohesion, which enabled them to access local resources and legitimacy as well as the creation of social values in the community (Maxim Vlasov, 2018).…”

Can Agroforestry Grow beyond Its Niche and Contribute to a Transition towards Sustainable Agriculture in Sweden?

“…One project is developing and testing how edible forest gardens installed at pre-schools could function as pedagogic tools for children [17]. There has also been an emerging interest in different agroecological approaches in sometimes overlapping grassroot movements related to permaculture, urban gardening and Transition town movements [18][19][20].…”