Sustainability Entrepreneurship and Equitable Transitions to a Low-Carbon Economy

Abstract

47 Sustainability-driven entrepreneurs design ventures with the primary intention of contributing to improved environmental quality and social well-being in ways that are mutually supportive. It has been suggested that these entrepreneurs can function as important catalysts to larger-scale socioeconomic structural transformations toward sustainability. However, the actual mechanisms underlying such a role are empirically under-researched and theoretically underdeveloped. In this study we investigate the possible catalytic role of sustainability entrepreneurship in the equitable transition to a low-carbon economy. We do this by developing a co-evolutionary framework that links the interactive dynamics of change in technologies, institutions and business strategies, and use this framework to analyse an empirical case study of NativeEnergy, an innovative, for-profit, marketing and finance company launched in the context of the evolving US energy industry. The article concludes by assessing the more general lessons that may be drawn about the role of sustainability entrepreneurs as catalysts to socioeconomic structural transformations. ! Entrepreneurship