Veleva Vesela
Department of Management, Center for Sustainable Enterprise and Regional Competitiveness, College of Management, UMass Boston, United States.
J Clean Prod. 2021 Feb 10;283:124658. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.124658. Epub 2020 Oct 14.
This paper examines the role of entrepreneurs in advancing sustainable lifestyles (SLs) to address climate change and social inequity. It is based on empirical study of eight U.S.-based sustainable entrepreneurs, focused on reducing material consumption. While business has a key role to play, many large companies are unwilling to promote SLs as this is contrary to their current business models which are focused on growing consumption and sales. This presents an opportunity for entrepreneurial companies with innovative business models who are passionate about sustainability and social impact, and better positioned to take risks and innovate. The research examined emerging business models for advancing SLs, key success factors and challenges reported by the entrepreneurs, the social and environmental impacts of their actions, and the future opportunities for scaling up such practices. The study found that entrepreneurs are well positioned to address simultaneously environmental social issues, however, they lack resources to effectively measure these impacts to demonstrate an overall positive benefit and strengthen their value proposition. Promoting green attributes alone is not enough to change the behavior of most consumers. It is critically important to emphasize other benefits such as a product/service quality, time or cost savings, or social impact. Social media, formal and informal sustainability networks, IT, sustainability policies, and consumer awareness are key to developing viable business models and competitive strategies that are difficult to replicate. The study found that sustainable entrepreneurs often face "costly" sustainability actions and lack the power to change "the rules of the game"; for this they need to collaborate with other key stakeholders, including NGOs, policy makers, and progressive companies. Based on the research findings the author proposes a new framework for the role of sustainable entrepreneurs as civic and political actors who not only offer innovative products and services, but help educate and influence key stakeholders, develop informal sustainability ecosystem, and thus create momentum for policy changes.
本文探讨了企业家在推动可持续生活方式（SLs）以应对气候变化和社会不平等方面所发挥的作用。它基于对八位美国可持续企业家的实证研究，这些企业家专注于减少物质消费。虽然企业在这方面可发挥关键作用，但许多大公司不愿推广可持续生活方式，因为这与它们当前专注于增加消费和销售的商业模式相悖。这为拥有创新商业模式、热衷于可持续发展和社会影响且更有能力承担风险和进行创新的创业公司提供了机会。该研究考察了推动可持续生活方式的新兴商业模式、企业家报告的关键成功因素和挑战、他们行动的社会和环境影响以及扩大此类实践的未来机遇。研究发现，企业家有能力同时应对环境和社会问题，然而，他们缺乏资源来有效衡量这些影响，以证明总体上的积极效益并强化其价值主张。仅宣传绿色属性不足以改变大多数消费者的行为。强调其他益处，如产品/服务质量、节省时间或成本或社会影响，至关重要。社交媒体、正式和非正式的可持续发展网络、信息技术、可持续发展政策以及消费者意识，对于开发难以复制的可行商业模式和竞争战略至关重要。研究发现，可持续企业家往往面临“代价高昂”的可持续发展行动，且缺乏改变“游戏规则”的力量；为此，他们需要与其他关键利益相关者合作，包括非政府组织、政策制定者和进步型公司。基于研究结果，作者提出了一个新框架，阐述可持续企业家作为公民和政治行为者的角色，他们不仅提供创新产品和服务，还帮助教育和影响关键利益相关者、发展非正式的可持续发展生态系统，从而为政策变革创造动力。
