Drivers Leading to the Identification of an Entrepreneurial Opportunity : Applied to Entrepreneurs in the Food Waste Management Industry

Background - Food waste is considered as a major sustainability concern as it has negative social, environmental and economic implications. Among various types of entrepreneurs, sustainable entrepreneurs are acting to resolve conjointly these three issues. Consequently, they should be willing to tackle food waste. An emerging belief in the literature is grounded on the statement that food waste can be a valuable resource and may represent opportunities for business. Despite this observation, just a few companies make use of food waste as a raw material. Purpose - The purpose of this thesis is to explore the drivers that lead to identify an entrepreneurial opportunity aiming to exploit food waste as a resource. Method - To fulfill the purpose, this thesis is of qualitative nature and follows an abductive approach. Primary data is collected through semi-structured interviews with ten entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs using food waste as a resource. Secondary data is obtained through scholarly articles, organizational reports or websites. For each of the cases, a within-case analysis is performed followed by a cross-case analysis. Conclusion - The analysis of the empirical findings resulted in the emergence of factors shared among the entrepreneurs of the sample. We recognized three drivers leading to the identification of an entrepreneurial opportunity aiming to use food waste as a resource: Awareness of the Food Waste Issue and its Potential Impact, Serendipity of Relationships and Motivate Societal Changes toward Environmental Transition. Additionally, it has been found that these drivers are moderated by two contextual factors, namely Entrepreneurial Curiosity toward Sustainability and Prior Knowledge linked to Sustainability