“WHAT DRIVES SUSTAINABLE ENTREPRENEURS?“ Topic area #9: Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management

Over the last decade a new idea has emerged within scholarly discussion about entrepreneuri-al theory and practice which deals explicitly with sustainable entrepreneurship. Sustainability as it has been conceptualized by the Brundtland-Commission in the late 1980ies is orientated towards a threefold set of objectives: society/ethics, economy, and ecology. An important research question within the sustainable entrepreneurship discussion which is also addressed in this paper is to understand the nature, motivation and drivers of so-called ecopreneurs, green entrepreneurs, or sustainable entrepreneurs. Our findings from a field study of ten start-up firms confirm that a main characteristic of sustainable entrepreneurs is a strong emphasis on ecological aspects in their business vision as opposed to the traditional entrepreneurial aspiration to grow and create profits. In addition, they suggest that the main drivers for a sustainable entrepreneurial motivation may be structured along the social and ethical dimen-sion. The findings are synthesized in a proposed set of more balanced entrepreneurial objecti-ves within a sustainable entrepreneurship context and the research as well as managerial implications are discussed