Biodiversity loss and entrepreneurship: Empirical evidence on threat perceptions among primary-sector entrepreneurs in 28 European countries

Abstract

Biodiversity loss is widespread and accelerating, threatening ecological systems and human well-being. Entrepreneurship and biodiversity loss are intertwined: entrepreneurs—especially in the primary sector—are both causing and suffering from this loss in biodiversity. However, little is known about the biodiversity-entrepreneurship nexus, in particular, how primary sector entrepreneurs perceive the negative effects of their activities on nature and biodiversity loss. Addressing this glaring and policy-relevant research gap, we empirically investigate how 3,469 entrepreneurs across 28 European countries perceive threats to biodiversity. Despite their close dependence on nature, our multilevel analyses show that primary sector entrepreneurs perceive activities related to the primary sector (e.g., intensive farming, intensive forestry, and overfishing) as less threatening to biodiversity loss than entrepreneurs in other sectors. However, this difference diminishes in countries with stronger reliance on the primary sector, suggesting a nuanced interplay between economic dependencies and biodiversity threat perception. Our study contributes to research on biodiversity and entrepreneurship, identifies crucial future research areas, and offers policy implications that can help societies leverage biodiversity entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurship more generally, as a vehicle to combat biodiversity loss.