Sustainability and sustainable development is slowly gathering momentum in public discourse, and greater attention and reverence in academic research. While there still appears to be no consensus defining sustainability, which has lead to hampered discussion, this should not impede nor hinder a greater call for dialogue of how to ultimately change the world, and for the global economy to consider what type of individual will address environmental and social issues simultaneously. We consider ‘traditional’ entrepreneurship still necessary and vital to the continuing development of disruptive innovation and market change, however, a new breed of entrepreneur must now achieve greater focus. A sustainable shift in societies development is required to guarantee a capacity to endure. Sustainable development is critical to not only the environments long-term well-being, but also a necessity to curve the ultimate slow demise of the human race. Economic responsibly toward the environment and society is imperative. Sustainable development meets at the confluence of three constituent parts - environmental sustainability, economic sustainability and socio-political sustainability, the foundations to an emerging new field of entrepreneurship - Sustainable Entrepreneurship.Sustainable Entrepreneurs enact a holistic approach to a venture start-up that embeds environmental, economic and social sustainability dimensions. Sustainable Entrepreneurs have received insufficient attention by the media, policy makers and have failed to grab the attention of academics to test theory in an exploratory cross-case analysis approach. Previous research has mainly been conceptual and theoretical. Literature is lacking practical insights into how entrepreneurs conduct sustainable entrepreneurial initiatives and whether such definitions hold true. A cross-case analysis of five entrepreneurs operating in the renewable energy industry is conducted, evaluating theory against real life. We fill this gap by conducting exploratory research in Sustainable Entrepreneurship, identifying the entrepreneurs motivations to start-up their unique venture, challenges faced throughout the venture development process and their impact within their defined market. It is evident throughout the five case studies all our entrepreneurs have encountered some sort of antecedent exposure to an environmental concern; leading to our belief that prior exposure to a sustainability related market failure has resulted in these entrepreneurs to pursue their business initiative. Leading from this analysis, it is evident Sustainable Entrepreneurs are highly motivated to solve environmental and/ or social related problems (sustainability-related market failures). Customer perceptions and unawareness for alternative sustainable products remain a considerable challenge. It is proposed that patents, cooperating with educational institutions, establishment of an international network and organisational culture, are all important practices that assist in the business development.

This paper focuses on companies within the cleantech industry (clean technology and its derivation “cleantech”) that have started up and produced clean techniques to the industrial world. The main purpose of this study is to contribute a better understanding of cleantech entrepreneurs’ motivations and influences to start up a cleantech company. This understanding, in turn, will provide regulatory agencies and society the key factors to stimulate cleantech entrepreneurial activity which take the environment and social problems into consideration. Thus, this study attempt to answer the following question: Why do entrepreneurs choose to run a cleantech company? In order to fulfill the main purpose of this project, a qualitative study was conducted. The qualitative study was performed as an unstructured interview of twelve founders of cleantech companies.  The cleantech companies were still in the in the start –up stage and some are at an even earlier stage. The companies were selected with the assist of Swentec’s mapping of cleantech companies in Sweden and ETAPs (Environmental Technologies Action Plan). In the theory chapter, this study contributes with a new framework of motives and goals for ecopreneurship. This new framework originates from the studies on the driving forces of ecopreneurship (Schaltegger (2002), Linnanen (2002), Valley & Taylor (2002) and Pastakia (2002).  The new framework recognizes four new types of ecopreneurs: eco-idealists, eco-innovators, ad-hoc enviropreneurs and environment opportunist. This typology is used to position and analyze cleantech entrepreneurs who participated in this study. In the empirical chapter, the findings revealed that the cleantech entrepreneurs’ motivations lie primarily in the opportunity to convert their innovation of techniques into concrete business and succeed in the private sector. Due to the fact that the great majority of entrepreneurs are academic researchers with a doctoral degree in engineering, their personal motives can be characterized as the pursuit of a “need for achievement”, “independence” and “extensive experience” in the field of cleantech development.  Furthermore, the cleantech entrepreneurs were thoroughly engaged in social and environmental problems. They pursue sustainability because they believe that their work contributes to create sustainable values in society. As a result, cleantech entrepreneurs are ecopreneurs. This study also showed that these values require influencing factors such as law and regulations, customers who demand clean technology in their manufacture of products, services and overall processes.  However, the cleantech companies argued that this influences especially regulations not provide enough incentives for cleantech development in order to address the environmental problem successfully. An implication of these findings is that government’s support should not be an obstacle but ensuring a sustainable society.

Driving sustainable development through new products, services, techniques and organisational modes that substantially reduce environmental impacts, or ecopreneurship, is especially important for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as they have a vital role to play in managing limited environmental and social resources. Reaping the benefits associated with ecopreneurship, however, requires a fundamental qualitative change process at the firm level. However, there remains considerable uncertainty as to how ecopreneurs will discover, develop and realise sustainabilityrelated opportunities in their organisations. Thus, the purpose of this article is to address this gap by analysing how this qualitative change process associated with a shift to sustainable development actually unfolds in SMEs. To do so it examines small and medium-sized wineries in Austria. Based on the results of a Delphi study, a multi-layer process model that differentiates between unfreezing, changing and refreezing processes is developed. The framework shows that the unfreezing of the status quo is mainly accomplished by the business owner's attitude towards sustainability. In the course of the changing process, change related to the adoption of greener business practices follows a hierarchical order, starting with business activity (the first layer). Then, four dimensions of capital resources (the second layer) must be revised in order to implement the change successfully. After that, relevant stakeholders (the third layer) must be integrated into this iterative learning process. Finally, in the course of refreezing, change is embedded in the organisation by the ongoing commitment of the business owner and future sustainable expansion strategies. The developed framework may serve as a guideline for small and medium-sized wineries, but also for a broader set of SMEs implementing sustainable organisational change in the future. The framework could also be used by national governments or certification authorities uncertain of how best to support the change process in SMEs. (authors' abstract)

Background: The background to the study is found in the recent development of applying circularity on traditional processes to support sustainability and reduce food waste. Especially the saturated food industry is in need of innovation (Cooper, 2011) and it is seen as beneficial to foster eco-innovation through collaboration with others, in particular between small and large enterprises rather than them doing it alone (Hockerts and Wüstenhagen, 2010). These networks however are complex and eventually require special attention. Research question: How do representatives of small enterprises and a global operating company view challenges in collaborating on sustainability driven projects? Aim: Gaining insight on how an established company with environmental conscious agenda collaborates with sustainable idea providers that have sustainability at the core of their operations. Method: This thesis is conducted with a qualitative case study using abductive reasoning given its exploratory style of execution. The empirical data is collected through semi-structured interviews. As epistemological direction social constructionism is chosen, which puts into focus that social interactions between social actors create shared meaning and realities. Conclusion: It is identified how the case company’s collaborations with different stakeholders are impacted by challenges related to industry impact, process mobility and the ability to scale. Especially of importance is the selection of partners regarding shared sustainable values prior to start. After all, the mentioned challenges are eventually not seen as challenges but still are seen as important to achieve sustainable innovations that impact the company’s food handling.

With growing attention to sustainable development, the role of sustainable innovations has gained increasing significance. Due to their high innovativeness, research has begun to recognize the importance of small companies that base their entire business rationale on sustainability, as they have a central role in creating solutions to some of the most critical environmental issues of today. The key aim of this paper is therefore to explore the emergence of ecopreneurial startups with sustainable innovations in order to develop a deeper understanding of how they grow and operate. By using a case study approach based on semi-structured interviews and secondary data sources, this study examines four Finnish startup companies. The results suggest that the emergence of the studied startups is highly linked to the ecopreneurs’ ability to identify potential business opportunities and to innovate through exploiting both their own and others’ previous knowledge. In addition, various internal and external aspects such as the work teams’ skills and expertise together with different push and pull factors contribute to the innovation development process around which the emergence of the companies is built. / Till följd av växande uppmärksamhet på hållbar utveckling har rollen av hållbara innovationer blivit allt viktigare. Mindre företag kännetecknas ofta av en hög grad av uppfinningsrikedom, och kan därmed ses som viktiga aktörer i att utveckla hållbara lösningar till några av de största miljöhoten idag. Forskning har följaktligen börjat att rikta fokus på speciellt de små företag som har byggt upp deras hela verksamhetsidé på hållbarhet. Huvudsyftet med denna studie är att undersöka uppkomsten av nystartade ekoprenöriella företag med hållbara innovationer för att få djupare förståelse om hur dessa företag växer och fungerar. Genom att utföra en fallstudie baserad på semistrukturerade intervjuer och sekundära källor granskar denna studie fyra finska nystartade företag. Resultatet visar på att uppkomsten av ekoprenöriella nystartade företag är starkt sammankopplad till ekoprenörens förmåga att identifiera potentiella affärsmöjligheter och innovera genom att utnyttja både sin egen och andras förkunskap. Vidare finns det diverse interna och externa faktorer, såsom teamets förmågor och expertis samt olika push- och pull-faktorer som påverkar innovationsutvecklingsprocessen som lägger grunden till företagens uppkomst.

<p><strong><em>The environmental issues have during the last decenniums gained an increased role in both the political arena and in the market economy. The society is therefore more knowledgeable about the environment and our impact on it. Through this enlightened state, stakeholders tend to put pressure on the organizations of today. They, more or less willingly, incorporate this responsibility to be a part of their business. Entrepreneurs in the environmental area have seen this rising market as an opportunity to gain market shares and other positive outcomes. Organizations can, not only take a responsibility for the environment but, make a profit out of such a commitment.  IT has become known as one of the contributors to facilitate the environmental impact, but much is left to be done, as IT equipment is one of the contributors to the damaging effects throughout its entire lifecycle. The study was conducted at Umeå Energi and was aiming towards an examination of their IT equipment and its environmental efficiency. Therefore, following questions were asked in this thesis: How environmental efficient is the IT equipment and the using of it in the organization today? What effects can different equipment and behavior lead to? Because of the opportunity to make the environmental work into a positive outcome another question where raised as well: Can the equipment and the using of it be environmental efficient and at the same time mean less expenditure? The study focused on the equipment in itself and the using of it. This was made through measuring of equipment and later on through a questionnaire survey. The results was then added together and analyzed in three different scenarios to illustrate the energy consumption of the equipment with the relation to the using of it. The result showed that both the equipment and the personnel working at Umeå Energi tended to be environmental inefficient. This led to establishing of proposals for changes and further work in this area.</em></strong></p>

<p>What is Ecopreneurship? This thesis proposes to define ecopreneurship in theory, and to increase the understanding of it in practice. Ecopreneurship can be seen as one of several ways of doing business in a more environmentally friendly way. It is conzeptualized as the intersection of entrepreneurship theory and sustainability studies. A non-exhaustive list of three sub-concepts of Ecopreneurship is identified and discussed: Eco-Innovation, Eco-Commitment and Eco-Opportunity.</p><p>In addition to the theoretical framing, this study also includes an empirical part, in which by means of multiple case studies, insight is gained on how Ecopreneurship and its sub-concepts manifest in practice. Apart from the three concepts already identified in the theoretical part of this study, the themes of social equity, indirect Ecopreneurship and the time aspect of Eco-Innovation emerged from the analysis of the case studies. This thesis presents an emerging framework for ecopreneurship, which still has gaps to be filled if accepted as a framework.</p>

What is Ecopreneurship? This thesis proposes to define ecopreneurship in theory, and to increase the understanding of it in practice. Ecopreneurship can be seen as one of several ways of doing business in a more environmentally friendly way. It is conzeptualized as the intersection of entrepreneurship theory and sustainability studies. A non-exhaustive list of three sub-concepts of Ecopreneurship is identified and discussed: Eco-Innovation, Eco-Commitment and Eco-Opportunity. In addition to the theoretical framing, this study also includes an empirical part, in which by means of multiple case studies, insight is gained on how Ecopreneurship and its sub-concepts manifest in practice. Apart from the three concepts already identified in the theoretical part of this study, the themes of social equity, indirect Ecopreneurship and the time aspect of Eco-Innovation emerged from the analysis of the case studies. This thesis presents an emerging framework for ecopreneurship, which still has gaps to be filled if accepted as a framework.

This thesis employed qualitative methods including grounded theory to assess how successful ecopreneurs communicate to maintain and sustain their triple bottom line organizations. The analysis of transcribed interviews from 13 exemplars in North America revealed five groups of common attributes that form an overarching theme of authentic identity. This finding confirms the Communication Theory of Identity and furthers it because it is through authentic identity that successful ecopreneurs manage to narrow identity gaps across the four layers of identity: they continuously strive for alignment with themselves, in relationships, among and across stakeholder groups, and in their daily execution. Understanding ecopreneurs and their practices, distilling recommendations, and adding to the scarce body of academic literature on ecopreneurship, are critical because ecopreneurship, in light of the alarming economic and environmental outlook, is establishing itself as a considerable area of business activity and influence for social change and a sustainable future.

The environmental issues have during the last decenniums gained an increased role in both the political arena and in the market economy. The society is therefore more knowledgeable about the environment and our impact on it. Through this enlightened state, stakeholders tend to put pressure on the organizations of today. They, more or less willingly, incorporate this responsibility to be a part of their business. Entrepreneurs in the environmental area have seen this rising market as an opportunity to gain market shares and other positive outcomes. Organizations can, not only take a responsibility for the environment but, make a profit out of such a commitment.  IT has become known as one of the contributors to facilitate the environmental impact, but much is left to be done, as IT equipment is one of the contributors to the damaging effects throughout its entire lifecycle. The study was conducted at Umeå Energi and was aiming towards an examination of their IT equipment and its environmental efficiency. Therefore, following questions were asked in this thesis: How environmental efficient is the IT equipment and the using of it in the organization today? What effects can different equipment and behavior lead to? Because of the opportunity to make the environmental work into a positive outcome another question where raised as well: Can the equipment and the using of it be environmental efficient and at the same time mean less expenditure? The study focused on the equipment in itself and the using of it. This was made through measuring of equipment and later on through a questionnaire survey. The results was then added together and analyzed in three different scenarios to illustrate the energy consumption of the equipment with the relation to the using of it. The result showed that both the equipment and the personnel working at Umeå Energi tended to be environmental inefficient. This led to establishing of proposals for changes and further work in this area.