Definition
Green entrepreneurship refers to a special subset of entrepreneurship that aims at creating and implementing solutions to environmental problems and to promote social change so that the environment is not harmed. It has also been suggested that green entrepreneurship could be a new business paradigm instead of a subset of entrepreneurship because green entrepreneurs have wider motivations than just launching eco-friendly products and services for a niche market (Kirkwood and Walton 2010). Environmental or green entrepreneurship can be explained on the basis of theories on entrepreneurship, and environmental and welfare economics as a subset of sustainable entrepreneurship (Dean and McMullen 2007). The environmental economics literature states that environmental degradation is a result of market failures, while the entrepreneurship literature claims that there are business...
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Affolderbach J, Krueger R (2017) “Just” ecopreneurs: re-conceptualising green transitions and entrepreneurship. Local Environ 22(4):410–423
Audretsch DB, Peña-Legazkue I (2012) Entrepreneurial activity and regional competitiveness: an introduction to the special issue. Small Bus Econ 39(3):531–537
Bennett SJ (1991) Ecopreneuring: the complete guide to small business opportunities from the environmental revolution. Wiley, New York
Bergset L (2015) The rationality and irrationality of financing green start-ups. Adm Sci 5(4):260–285
Berle G (1991) The green entrepreneur: business opportunities that can save the Earth and make you money. Liberty Hall Press, Blue Ridge Summit
Blue J (1990) Ecopreneuring: managing for results. Scott Foresman, London
Bocken NM, Short SW, Rana P, Evans S (2014) A literature and practice review to develop sustainable business model archetypes. J Clean Prod 65:42–56
de Bruin A (2016) Towards a framework for understanding transitional green entrepreneurship. Small Enterp Res 23(1):10–21
Chen T, Chai L (2010) Attitude towards the environment and green products: consumer’s perspective. Manag Sci Eng 4(2):27–39
Cohen B, Winn MI (2007) Market imperfections, opportunity and sustainable entrepreneurship. J Bus Ventur 22(1):29–49
Dahl R (2010) Green washing. Environ Health Perspect 118(6):246–252
Dean TJ, McMullen JS (2007) Toward a theory of sustainable entrepreneurship: reducing environmental degradation through entrepreneurial action. J Bus Ventur 22(1):50–76
Delafrooz N, Moghaddam S (2017) Green products consumers segmentation using self-organizing maps in Iran. Int J Agric Manag Dev 7(3):347–356
Delmas M, Burbano C (2011) The drivers of greenwashing. Calif Manag Rev 54(1):64–87
Farinelli F, Bottini M, Akkoyunlu S, Aerni P (2011) Green entrepreneurship: the missing link towards a greener economy. Atdf J 8(3/4):42–48
Gast J, Gundolf K, Cesinger B (2017) Doing business in a green way: a systematic review of the ecological sustainability entrepreneurship literature and future research directions. J Clean Prod 147:44–56
Geels FW (2010) Ontologies, socio-technical transitions (to sustainability), the multi-level perspective. Res Policy 39:495–510
Geels FW (2011) The multi-level perspective on sustainability transitions: responses to seven criticisms. Environ Innov Soc Trans 1:24e40
Gibbs D, O’Neill K (2014) Rethinking sociotechnical transitions and green entrepreneurship: the potential for transformative change in the green building sector. Environ Plan A 46(5):1088–1107
Hockerts K, Wüstenhagen R (2010) Greening Goliaths versus emerging Davids – theorizing about the role of incumbents and new entrants in sustainable entrepreneurship. J Bus Ventur 25(5):481–492
Ishak N, Kamal E, Yusof N (2017) The green manufacturer’s compliance with green criteria throughout the life cycle of building material. SAGE Open. July–September 2017, pp 1–12
Joshi Y, Rahman Z (2015) Factors affecting green purchase behaviour and future research directions. Int Strateg Manag Rev 3(2015):128–143
Khanna T (2011) Billions of entrepreneurs: how China and India are reshaping their futures and yours. Harvard Business Review Press, Watertown
Kirkwood J, Walton S (2010) What motivates ecopreneurs to start businesses? Int J Entrep Behav Res 16(3):204–228
Kotchen MJ, Moore MR (2008) Conservation: from voluntary restraint to a voluntary price premium. Environ Resour Econ 40(2):195–215
Krüger O (2005) The role of ecotourism in conservation: panacea or Pandora’s box? Biodivers Conserv 14(3):579–600
Lam P, Chan E, Poon C, Chau C, Chun K (2009) Factors affecting the implementation of green specifications in construction. J Environ Manag 91(2010):654–661. Available online 22 Oct 2009
Lee N, Choi Y, Youn C, Lee Y (2012) Does green fashion retailing make consumers more eco-friendly? The influence of green fashion products and campaigns on green consciousness and behavior. Cloth Text Res J 30(1):67–82
Manaktola K, Jauhari V (2007) Exploring consumer attitude and behaviour towards green practices in the lodging industry in India. Int J Contemp Hosp Manag 19(5):364–377
Nieuwenhuis P (2018) Alternative business models and entrepreneurship: the case of electric vehicles. Int J Entrep Innov 19(1):33–45
Nikolaou IE, Tasopoulou K, Tsagarakis K (2018) A typology of green entrepreneurs based on institutional and resource-based views. J Entrep 27(1):111–132
O’Neill K, Gibbs D (2016) Rethinking green entrepreneurship – fluid narratives of the green economy. Environ Plan A 48(9):1727–1749
Oosterveer P, Guivant JS, Spaargaren G (2007) Shopping for green food in globalizing supermarkets: sustainability at the consumption junction. In Marsden, T. (Ed.), Sage handbook on environment and society, London, pp 411–428
Osterwalder A, Pigneur Y (2010) Business model generation: a handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers. Wiley, Hoboken
Ottman JA (2011) The new rules of green marketing: strategies, tools, and inspiration for sustainable branding. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco
Pacheco DF, Dean TJ, Payne DS (2010) Escaping the green prison: entrepreneurship and the creation of opportunities for sustainable development. J Bus Ventur 25(5):464–480
Parrish BD (2010) Sustainability-driven entrepreneurship: principles of organization design. J Bus Ventur 25(5):510–523
Post J, Altman B (1994) Managing the environmental change process: barriers and opportunities. J Organ Chang Manag 7(4):64–81
Ramus C, Montiel I (2005) When are corporate environmental policies a form of greenwashing? Bus Soc 44(4):377–414
Rejikumar G (2016) Antecedents of green purchase behaviour: an examination of moderating role of green wash fear. Glob Bus Rev 17(2):332–350
Roome N, Louche C (2016) Journeying toward business models for sustainability: a conceptual model found inside the black box of organisational transformation. Organ Environ 29(1):11–35
Saari UA, Baumgartner RJ, Mäkinen SJ (2017) Eco-friendly brands to drive sustainable development: replication and extension of the brand experience scale in a cross-national context. Sustainability 9(7):1286
Schaper M (2002) The essence of ecopreneurship. Greener Manag Int:26–30
Schaper M (2010) Making ecopreneurs: developing sustainable entrepreneurship (Gower, Farnham, Hants)
Schaper M (2016). Understanding the green entrepreneur. In Schaper, M. (Ed.), Making ecopreneurs. Developing Sustainable Entrepreneurship, Routledge, pp 27–40
Scheyvens R (1999) Ecotourism and the empowerment of local communities. Tour Manag 20(2):245–249
Shane S, Venkataraman S (2000) The promise of entrepreneurship as a field of research. Acad Manag Rev 25(1):217–226
Silajdžić I, Kurtagić SM, Vučijak B (2015) Green entrepreneurship in transition economies: a case study of Bosnia and Herzegovina. J Clean Prod 88:376–384
Suresh J, Ramraj R (2012) Entrepreneurial ecosystem: case study on the influence of environmental factors on entrepreneurial success. Eur J Bus Manag 4(16):95–101
Teece D (2010) Business models, business strategy and innovation. Long Range Plan 43(2010):172–194
UNEP (2011) Towards a green economy: pathways to sustainable development and poverty eradication – a synthesis for policy makers United Nations Environment Programme. http://www.unep.org/greeneconomy
Vallaster C, Kraus S, Kailer N, Baldwin B (2018) Responsible entrepreneurship: outlining the contingencies. Int J Entrep Behav Res. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-04-2018-0206
Vuorio AM, Puumalainen K, Fellnhofer K (2018) Drivers of entrepreneurial intentions in sustainable entrepreneurship. Int J Entrep Behav Res 2(24):359–381
Walley EE, Taylor DW (2002) Opportunists, champions, mavericks...?. Greener Manag Int (38)
Zubeltzu-Jaka E, Erauskin-Tolosa A, Heras-Saizarbitoria I (2018) Shedding light on the determinants of eco-innovation: a meta-analytic study. Bus Strat Env. 27(7):1093–1103. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2054
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Saari, U.A., Joensuu-Salo, S. (2020). Green Entrepreneurship. In: Leal Filho, W., Azul, A.M., Brandli, L., özuyar, P.G., Wall, T. (eds) Responsible Consumption and Production. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95726-5_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95726-5_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-95725-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-95726-5
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences