Despite the increasing popularity of the concept of entrepreneurship for sustainable development in both academia and policy making, there is no agreement on how this process should unfold and which objectives it should pursue. Perceived tensions between the paradigms of sustainability and economic development as well as alack of shared definitions and assumptions lead to ambiguous understandings of the idea of sustainable entrepreneurship. This thesis uses the theoretical framework of ecological economics to investigate a leading discourse within the field of sustainable entrepreneurship and aims toclarify the underlying assumptions and implications of the current discourse. The analysed discourse is created by SEED, a global UN partnership which promotes entrepreneurship for sustainable development with a focus on African countries. The discourse analysis is conducted according to four analytical elements as defined by Dryzek (1997: 2013). The theoretical reflection of the discourse through the lensof ecological economics and its strong sustainability paradigm functions as a foundation for the conceptualisation of strong sustainable entrepreneurship from which implications for the current sustainable entrepreneurship discourse are derived.

abstract: Over the past few decades, businesses globally have advanced in incorporating the principles of sustainability as they strive to align economic outcomes with growing and complex social and environmental demands and opportunities. This transition is conditioned by the maturity, scale, and geographical location of a business (among other factors), with particular challenges placed on small enterprises in middle- to low-income communities. Within this context, the overarching research question of this dissertation is why and how business incubation processes may foster sustainable enterprises at the middle and base of the socioeconomic pyramid (MoP/BoP). To explore this question, in this project I used as a case study the experience of a network of social business incubators operated by Tecnologico de Monterrey, a private, non-profit, multi-campus university system in Mexico. Centering on its campus in Guadalajara and in order to understand if and how MoP/BoP businesses address sustainability, I developed a current state assessment of incubator processes, analyzing during two semesters the activities of incubated entrepreneurs and their goals, motivations, and outcomes. The general expectation at the outset of the study was that Tec's social business incubation process, in both its design and implementation, focuses on the economic viability and outcomes of incubated projects and hence does not promote entrepreneur commitment to sustainability goals and practices. The general approach of the research project involved a qualitative, in-depth ethnographic assessment of participants. Data were collected by means of the following research tools: (a) archival and documentary review, (b) participant observation, (c) surveys of participants (entrepreneurs and advisors/mentors), and (d) semi-structured interviews of participants. The overall design of the research was inspired by the transitions management approach and by the intervention research method, while qualitative results were assessed under the grounded theory approach. Results of the research are reported under three general categories: (a) analysis of entrepreneur goals, motivations, and outcomes, (b) identification of social and environmental opportunities, and (c) review of the role of social networks and broader support structures. While results confirmed the general expectation of the study, it was possible to establish (based on the interaction with the entrepreneurs and other actors) that there is both interest and commitment to identify and explore opportunities in social and environmental issues. Thus, the dissertation concludes with a proposal for potential future interventions in this social incubator, exploring a new vision and strategies for a transition to a more sustainability-oriented approach. Finally, key recommendations define the most critical elements of an agenda for transition in the social incubation process at Campus Guadalajara and provide input for other efforts. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Sustainability 2014

Debatten om miljöns överlevnad är idag spridd i samhället. Redan 1987 fick FN ett stort genomslag med Brundtlandrapporten där en hållbar utveckling definieras (Frostenson & Helin, 2018). För att företag ska ta sitt ansvar och skapa ett hållbart företagande krävs en integration av ekonomiska, ekologiska och sociala aspekter i en organisations kort- och långsiktiga planering (Dyllick & Hockerts, 2002). Studien fokuserar på den ekologiska aspekten då utveckling och tillväxt måste äga rum på miljöns villkor (FN, 2012). Små och medelstora företag, SME, som är studiens andra avgränsning, står idag för ca 70 % av de globala föroreningarna (Hillary, 2017). Hur sektorn ska skapa ett hållbart företagande är svårt då verktygen som finns för ekologisk hållbarhetsstyrning är svåra att implementera direkt från stora företag (Johnson & Schaltegger, 2016), då sektorn fungerar fundamentalt annorlunda (Jenkins, 2009; Kechiche & Soparnot, 2012). Studiens utgångspunkt är att undersöka hur SME utformar sin ekologiska hållbarhetsstyrning, hur de förhåller sig till ett hållbart entreprenörskap samt hur de överkommer de interna och externa barriärer som definierats (Johnson och Schaltegger, 2016). Forskningsfrågorna undersöktes i en fallstudie hos ett medelstort tillverkande företag. Det utfördes fyra semistrukturerade intervjuer med ledande personer inom företaget samt interna styrdokument och externa rapporter undersöktes. Resultatet indikerar att små och medelstora företag utformar sin ekologiska hållbarhetsstyrning utifrån den arbetsmodell som beskrivs i ISO 14001 standarden (International Standards Organization [ISO], 2015). En miljöpolicy lägger grunden för allt fortsatt arbete och beskriver de åtaganden som görs. Arbetsgången fortsätter med analyser som mynnar ut i miljömål och en handlingsplan med ansvarsfördelning och tidsramar. Nyckeltal används för uppföljning och regelbundna revisioner utförs av externa revisorer. Fallstudien indikerar också att den mest framträdande barriären inom små och medelstora företags implementering av verktyg för hållbarhetsstyrning är bristen på kompetens. Det övervinns genom anlitande av expertkompetens hos konsulter. Det undersökta fallföretaget har ekologisk hållbarhet som konkurrensstrategi vilket innebär att de ser affärsmöjligheter i att lösa hållbarhetsproblem och på så sätt förhåller sig till ett hållbart entreprenörskap (Shepherd & Patzelt, 2011). Av effectuation och causation så är causation den dominerande logiken i beslutsprocesser när företag huvudsakligen utgår från målstyrning. / The debate about the survival of the environment is spread throughout society today. Already in 1987, the UN had a major impact with the Brundtland Report, which defines sustainable development (Frostenson & Helin, 2018). For companies to take responsibility and create sustainable business, integration of economic, ecological and social aspects into an organization's short and long-term planning is required (Dyllick & Hockerts, 2002). This study focuses on the ecological aspect because development and growth must take place on environmental conditions (UN, 2012). Small and medium-sized companies, SMEs, which are the second boundary of this study, currently account for about 70% of global pollution (Hillary, 2017). How SMEs should be able to create a sustainable business is difficult as the tools available for ecological sustainability management are difficult to implement directly from large companies (Johnson & Schaltegger, 2016), as SMEs are fundamentally different (Jenkins, 2009; Kechiche & Soparnot, 2012). The study examines how SMEs design their ecological sustainability management and how they relate to sustainable entrepreneurship. How SMEs overcome the internal and external barriers defined in previous studies (Johnson & Schaltegger, 2016), will also be investigated. The research questions were investigated in a case study in a medium-sized manufacturing company. Four semi-structured interviews were conducted with managers and internal control documents and external reports were also investigated. The results indicate that SMEs design their ecological sustainability management based on the working model described in the ISO 14001 standard (International Standards Organization [ISO], 2015). The environmental policy lays the foundation for all continued work and describes the commitments that are made. The process continues with analyzes that lead to environmental goals and an action plan with responsibilities and time frames. Key performance indicators are used for monitoring and regular audits are performed by external auditors. The case study also indicates that the most prominent barrier in SMEs implementation of sustainability management tools is the lack of competence. It is overcome by employing expertise from consultants. The surveyed company has ecological sustainability as a competitive strategy, which means that they see business opportunities in solving sustainability problems and thus relate to sustainable entrepreneurship (Shepherd & Patzelt, 2011). By effectuation and causation, causation is the dominant logic in decision-making processes when companies are primarily based on goal management.

The study seeks to explain how sustainable entrepreneurship occurs in a resource constrained setting. This is important as it improves our understanding of how entrepreneurs respond to adversity and develop opportunities that jointly address the social, environmental and economic dimensions of entrepreneurship. Previous research has discussed the antecedents, outcomes and contextual conditions that drive sustainable entrepreneurship. However, what is absent from this growing research body is knowledge of the mechanisms through which individuals engage in this type of entrepreneurship. The study seeks to answer the following research question: “How do individuals faced with resource constraints engage in sustainable entrepreneurship?” Using effectuation as a lens, a multi-method qualitative approach based on multiple case studies was adopted in this research and a mix of inductive and deductive analyses, also referred to as abductive analysis was employed. A sample of 5 sustainable enterprises were purposively selected in Uganda, located in sub-Saharan Africa. The results show that resource constraints compel the entrepreneurs to seek expertise and resources from others with mutual goals while controlling expenses. In the process the entrepreneur learns and adapts to the emergent opportunity. The entrepreneur’s actions are further influenced by passion that sustains the activity in the face of challenges. In this research, sustainable entrepreneurship is further explicated showing that the social, economic and environmental objectives exist in a state of shifting, supportive interaction of one another. The study clarifies our understanding of how entrepreneurs cope with inadequate resources. It explains the mechanisms through which individuals contending with resource constraints employ control as opposed to prediction strategies to exploit entrepreneurship opportunities. In this way the study contributes to the literature by proposing the fusion of cognitive and affective dimensions in realizing sustainable entrepreneurship goals. The study further suggests that the multiple objectives that typify the pursuits of sustainable entrepreneurs serve as supportive mechanisms and this puts into question arguments that these firms face comparatively larger challenges than those that singularly pursue economic objectives. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2018. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / PhD / Unrestricted

Abstract: Introduction- Human activities has resulted in degradation of quality of environment, social life, and economic gains, bringing to life the challenges of sustainability. In order to reduce degradations, a solution encircling sustainability is required. The solution must bring economic viability, social equity, and environmental protection. One of the many solutions can be creation of sustainable enterprises, also the concept of sustainable entrepreneurship is catching the pace worldwide. But who can attain sustainable entrepreneurship is still a question Engineers can connect technology to the market and can create products which are sustainable (Alexa et al., 2020) seems to be right choice. Hence educating engineers can be effective to achieve sustainable entrepreneurship. Purpose and research question- Sustainable entrepreneurship is a relatively nascent field. Even though, engineers seem to be right choice to train, there is not sufficient information on the literature regarding the skills necessary to promote sustainable entrepreneurship. Besides, the universities are not aware of the methods that helps in developing these skills. Even though many authors focus on sustainable entrepreneurship, it is not quite explained in terms of engineering. This gap needs to be bridged by determining relevant engineering skills that promote sustainable entrepreneurship in future engineering students and discover few teaching methods and learning approaches that facilitate in developing these skills and thus answer the research question “What engineering skills are important to promote sustainable entrepreneurship in master education and what methods facilitate the developing of these skills”   Methodology- In order to answer the research question, a qualitative study was carried out with a deductive approach. Also, the nature of the research is exploratory. In addition to this, interviews were conducted with program directors from four Swedish universities to gain deeper understandings from their perspectives regarding the engineering skills required to promote sustainable entrepreneurship and the methods to facilitate its development.    Findings- From the insights of the participants it is found that many skills are interrelated to each other; meaning, development of one skill results in improvement of another. Also, many teaching and learning methods were found out from the interviews that facilitate in the development of these skills. Besides, it was found that the participants did not consider the development of all the skills identified in the literature in accordance with their program. But majority of these skills were considered to be relevant to promote sustainable entrepreneurship. Conclusions- It is seen that engineering skills from multiple disciplines seems to coincide especially when sustainability is a common goal. It is evident from the literature, primary and the secondary data that these skills are important to be developed in engineering students in the perspective of sustainable entrepreneurship. Also, this study has many implications for program directors, future researches, teaching professionals and master’s students as well.

The purpose of this study was to explore how previously developed traditional entrepreneurialskills is connected with the recently established entrepreneurial activity, called sustainableentrepreneurship as well as to help sustainable entrepreneurs to build the necessary skills thatincrease the development of projects aiming to balance social, environmental, and economicalproblems. Therefore, the research question to answer in this study is ‘’Which entrepreneurialskills (or set of skills) must be acquired and nurtured by entrepreneurs to successfully flourisha sustainable business?’’. The procedure is based on interviews with eight individuals withrelevant experience within sustainable entrepreneurship and whom operate in businesses thatoffer sustainable products and/or services, operate in a sustainable way regarding social,environmental or economic were chosen. The results indicate that there are other skills that donot fit the traditional entrepreneurial skills presented by Lichtenstein and Lyons (2001) andthat a fifth category could be imprinted into the entrepreneurial skills necessary to flourish asuccessful business.

Rapidly increasing global environmental changes are causing disruptions in the natural environment and have resulted in emphasized importance of developing sustainable entrepreneurship to mitigate climate change. To do this, however, external conditions have been argued to stimulate new business opportunities, which have been reconceptualized as external enablers (Davidsson, 2015). This study will therefore investigate how combinations of external enablers can be understood and leveraged to facilitate new sustainable venture creation within one of the sectors with the potential to reverse climate change, the marine sector. Thus, the aim of this study is to assess the combinations of external enablers that facilitate venture creation within the marine sector. The study was conducted in accordance with the interpretivist approach, basing the data collection on multiple case studies. The case studies were based on secondary online data and semi-constructed interviews, where the data was later analyzed through a coding process according to Gioia et al., (2013). The study was set to follow an inductive approach.  The empirical findings show that the prominent external enabler combinations for sustainable ventures within the marine sector are of the regulatory, economic and sociocultural types which have a complementary relationship and act in symbiosis. The symbiosis is in turn affected by climate change as a fundamental enabling factor for sustainable ventures.

Research Background: Climate change poses a core threat to the current and future welfare of society. Sub-Saharan Africa is particularly susceptible to challenges associated with climate change, most of which are bound to have large-scale societal impacts. Fortunately, Grand Challenges (GCs) can also enable opportunities for sustainable entrepreneurship to emerge. As entrepreneurs work in larger interrelated ecosystems, it is noteworthy to explore the utilization of ecosystems to develop sustainable ventures that address GCs. Current research has not addressed the interplay between external enablers and entrepreneurial ecosystems, especially in the Sub-Saharan context. The focus of this study is to explore how sustainable entrepreneurs acted on GCs in the pursuit of venture opportunities, and how ecosystems were utilized to foster the development of entrepreneurial agents and their ventures. Research Purpose: The purpose of this research is to identify how GCs facilitate sustainable entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan Africa, given the interaction between entrepreneurs, their ecosystems, and climate change-associated GCs. Method: The research paradigm for this study follows critical realism. Meaning, we question the nature of reality as inherently multilayered and align with epistemic relativism. An explorative interview-based study was adopted for our methodology. We sampled our interview candidates purposively through the formation of several criteria. In total, we collected data from 20 semi-structured interviews through online platforms. We analyzed our data by interpreting principles of thematic analysis and the theory- building approach, to connect empirical themes to theoretical constructs. Conclusion: The results for this study show that sustainable entrepreneurs act on a wide variety of GCs. Within ecosystems, we noticed that sustainable development, cultural belief systems, educational infrastructure, governance, and resource accessibility influence the potential for ecosystems to develop. Specifically, we adopted three dimensions in which these pillars have influences: the entrepreneurial, communal, and structural level. The findings indicated that the scope of external enablers is fluid due to ecosystem interactions. Moreover, opacity and agency-intensity of enabling mechanisms can be reduced by developing entrepreneurial ecosystems. We also noted that entrepreneurs themselves can take on the role of ecosystem-builders. Our findings revised current understandings of sustainable entrepreneurship and redefined the concept to create a more inclusive label.

Like every human, the sustainable entrepreneur is impacted by all the places they have inhabited, but even more so since their triple-bottom-line approach leads to a manifestation of their efforts in places. Opposing this concept of place, scholars describe the concept of placelessness as a manifestation of a lack of meaning or lack of physical location. This qualitative study of sustainable entrepreneurs explores the connection between sustainable entrepreneurship and place or placelessness.  Our approach opposes the common notion that placeness and placelessness are two separate boxes by saying that they are instead two extremes of a scale, making placeless or place-based within sustainable entrepreneurship a matter of degree rather than “either-or”. Building on Shrivastava & Kennelly’s framework of Location, Landscape, and Meaning, we were able to make contributions to the complex, multi-directional impacts that place(lessness) and the sustainable entrepreneur have on each other. While a connection to a place can also inspire sustainable behavior, it is the sustainable entrepreneurs’ environmental and social value creation that immensely benefits from the familiarity and security they experience in their place, as well as the communal support and trusting relationship with local institutions. Placelessness tends to offer stronger support mechanisms for the economic side of the venture, as well as, in the case of digital placelessness, flexibility, and a fast flow of knowledge. In return, the sustainable entrepreneur impacts their place context through their social and environmental efforts, as well as through community and place building.

This study investigates the influence of investors on the sustainability orientation of startups and the use of causation and effectuation approaches. The aim of the study is to gain a comprehensive understanding of how and why investors influence startups in their sustainability orientation, and what impact this has on the use of causation and effectuation decision-making logics. While there are several studies on how sustainability orientation affects the funding success of, for example, venture capitalists or crowdfunding campaigns, little is known about how startups deal with their sustainability orientation to attract new investors, or after they have found and collaborated with an investor. The question here is to what extent startups allow themselves to be influenced by investors in their sustainability orientation, i.e. whether they increase, maintain or decrease it. In order to explore this context, the following research question was formed:  How does investor funding affect the sustainability orientation of startups, and how does this change the ongoing decision-making approach of startups?  We chose to use a qualitative research method in which interviews were conducted with Swedish startups. The interviews included questions about participants' experiences, feelings, and perceptions of investor influence on their sustainability goals, as well as approaches to causation and effectuation based on the characteristics of the theory established in the theoretical framework. During the interviews with the startups, we looked at different funding sources such as venture capitalists, business angels and local investment companies, and also considered different rounds of funding such as seed and startup funding.  The results of the study show that investors have an impact on the sustainability orientation of startups when there is a trade-off between the sustainability goals of the startups and the economic goals of the investors. In such cases, startups tend to neglect the environmental or social goals in order to enable the achievement of the investors' economic goals. This leads to a lower sustainability orientation and a stronger focus on economic objectives. With regard to the use of causation and effectuation logics, it can be seen that the startups influenced in their sustainability orientation switch from a causation logic before investor financing to an effectuation logic after investor financing in relation to the company's goals. All other examined characteristics of causation and effectuation, such as vision, strategies, conception of the product or service and the handling of uncertainty, do not indicate any changes.  Finally, this study adds insights to the existing theory of causation and effectuation on how a change in sustainability orientation affects the use of causation and effectuation logic. However, the study also has limitations, which is why we suggest that future studies conduct the study again in a new setting, e.g. in a different country and with different startups, in order to validate the results against the limitations.