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Exploring Environmental Entrepreneurship: Identity Coupling, Venture Goals, and Stakeholder Incentives
Author(s) -
York Jeffrey G.,
O'Neil Isobel,
Sarasvathy Saras D.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of management studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.398
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1467-6486
pISSN - 0022-2380
DOI - 10.1111/joms.12198
Subject(s) - entrepreneurship , identity (music) , incentive , environmental degradation , business , stakeholder , identity management , industrial organization , marketing , environmental resource management , public relations , economics , ecology , market economy , political science , finance , process (computing) , computer science , physics , acoustics , biology , operating system
On the basis of a qualitative study of 25 renewable energy firms, we theorize why and how individuals engage in environmental entrepreneurship, inductively defined as: the use of both commercial and ecological logics to address environmental degradation through the creation of financially profitable organizations, products, services, and markets . Our findings suggest that environmental entrepreneurs: (1) are motivated by identities based in both commercial and ecological logics, (2) prioritize commercial and/or ecological venture goals dependent on the strength and priority of coupling between these two identity types, and (3) approach stakeholders in a broadly inclusive, exclusive, or co‐created manner based on identity coupling and goals. These findings contribute to literature streams on hybrid organizing, entrepreneurial identity, and entrepreneurship's potential for resolving environmental degradation.