What motivates ecopreneurs in the United States to create value?

• Author: Howard Van Auken,Priyanka Jayashankar,Arvind Ashta
• Published date: 01 November 2018
• Date: 01 November 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/jsc.2235

RESEARCH ARTICLE

What motivates ecopreneurs in the United States to create

value?

Priyanka Jayashankar

1

| Howard Van Auken

1

| Arvind Ashta

2

1

Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa

2

CEREN, EA 7477, Burgundy School of

Business–Université Bourgogne Franche-

Comté, France

Correspondence

Priyanka Jayashankar, Iowa State University,

Ames, IA.

Email: priyanka@iastate.edu

Funding information

Conseil Regional de Bourgogne and Banque

Populaire

Abstract

There is an important linkage between the motives and the perceived value creation of ecopre-

neurs. Filling a research gap on how ecopreneurs' financial and nonfinancial motives impact

different forms of value creation, a positive relationship is revealed between economic and

socio-ethical motives and specific types of value creation. Interestingly, the organic farmers'

motives have no impact on economic value creation.

1|INTRODUCTION

The loss of biodiversity and the advent of climate change are

adversely impacting the planet's ecosystems and low-income commu-

nities. There is a growing need for sustainable innovation due to the

cumulative demographic and economic pressure on the natural envi-

ronment (Bryant & Bryant, 1998). Amid rising levels of environmental

degradation and depletion of natural resources, policy-makers, NGOs,

and other key stakeholders are placing the three sustainability pillars,

namely environmental, economic and social development, on the

global agenda (Johnson, 2005).

1

Ecological economists, for their part, are calling for changes in

patterns of consumption and methods of production (Bloemmen,

Bobulescu, Le, & Vitari, 2015; Infante Amate & González de Molina,

2013; Sekulova, Kallis, Rodríguez-Labajos, & Schneider, 2013). One

method for achieving societal transformation is entrepreneurship

(Schumpeter, 1994 [1942]). For this, we need to look at how entrepre-

neurs could be motivated or enabled to create an impact on ecological

issues (Hall, Daneke, & Lenox, 2010; Yang et al., 2010). The combina-

tion of the words “ecology”and “entrepreneur”gives us the word

“ecopreneur”(Pastakia, 1998; Schaltegger, 2002).

Ecopreneurship, is a growing field and scholarly literature, is ripe

with the examples of environmentally friendly initiatives, including

famous ones like Ben and Jerry and the Body Shop (Isaak, 2002).

Although iconic case studies are beneficial, there is a need for

studying the overall impact of the sector. In recent times, researchers

have been studying organic farming (Jolink & Niesten, 2015; Larsson,

2012), organic health food (Kearins & Collins, 2012), organic dining

(Poulston & Yiu, 2011), selling potted plants instead of flowers

(Bammi & Singh, 2014), recycling text books (Linnanen, 2002), fair

trade in artisan fabricated clothes, log cabins, and salvaging used prod-

ucts (Robinson & Stubberud, 2015).

Ecopreneurship is a subset of entrepreneurship that includes

certain values on sustainabi lity (Linnanen, 2002). An ecopreneur is “a

person who seeks to transform a sector of th ee conomy toward sus-

tainability by starting up a bu siness in that sector with a green

design, with green processes and with a life-long commitmen t to sus-

tainability in everything that is sa id and done”(Isaak, 2002, page82).

This definition, which is esp oused by many others (e.g., Kea rins &

Collins, 2012), correspon ds to the narrow conceptualization of Schal-

tegger (2002). A broader defi nition would otherwise enco mpass

cases of established businesses , which introduce environmental ly

sustainable products as part of th eir core activities. Other studi es

have also taken this broader view (Pastakia, 2002) . In any case, both

large and new businesses have a rol e to play in solving environmental

problems (Hockerts & Wüstenhage n, 2010) and it is important to

motivate them to do so as motiva tion is one of the drivers of en vi-

ronmental actions (Klewitz & Ha nsen, 2014). Motives may differ

among different kinds of ecopren eurs. For example, commercial eco-

preneurs, who maximize finan cial returns on green business opportu-

nities, create trade-offs bet ween the two (Figge & Hahn, 2012;

Pastakia, 1998).

Church and Elster (2002) have identified several direct and

indirect social and environmental effects of grassroot innovation,

JEL Classification Codes: Q12, Q57.

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http://www.grida.no/publications/et/ep4/page/2632.aspx.

DOI: 10.1002/jsc.2235

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