Green entrepreneurs have been seen as key drivers for a transition to a green economy. However, there has been limited in-depth qualitative empirical research with green entrepreneurs to date, focusing instead on typologies categorising certain 'types' of green entrepreneur. Moreover, the literature rarely situates such individual activities within broader concepts such as the green economy. In contrast, we suggest that current discourses of the green economy are important in contextualising the ways that green entrepreneurs make sense of themselves and their businesses. Green entrepreneurs are thus negotiating varying tensions between their business activities, environmental philosophies and wider contexts at the intersection between the green economy and the mainstream economy. Drawing on evidence from 55 interviews, we explore the narratives employed by green entrepreneurs to situate themselves within/outwith the wider green economy -the recursive framing of mainstream and niche 'green' activities provides a sense of the tensions and politics at play in the development of the green economy. We thus offer a new and more dynamic view of the evolving nature of 'being' and 'becoming' a green entrepreneur, rather than relying on the fixed categories espoused in previous typologies. We conclude that it is important that policy makers recognise the complex and contentious nature of green entrepreneurship, and that it is essential to view the green economy as a diverse constellation of myriad actors rather than corporate reinventions of business as usual.
Tbis paper explores tbe development of green entrepreneursbip and its potential role in transformative cbange towards a green economy. It achieves tbis tbrougb a study of tbe green building sector in England and Wales, based on qualitative empirical data from fifty-five semistructured interviews witb businesses in tbe green building sector and witb support organisations, including banks, financial sources, and business advice and support. Tbe paper both critiques and syntbesises two bodies of literatureentrepreneurial researcb and sociotecbnical transitions theories, specifically tbe multilevel perspective (MLP)-to better understand tbe role of green entrepreneurs in facilitating a sbift towards a green economy. Tbis analysis embeds green entrepreneurs in a wider system of actors, ratber tban reifying tbe lone entrepreneurial bero, in order to explore bow green entrepreneurs facilitate sustainability transitions. Tbe paper cballenges tbe notion tbat green entrepreneurs are an unproblematic category. We discovered tbat individuals move between 'green' and 'conventional' business, evolving over time, sucb tbat tbis is a fiuid and blurred, ratber tban static, state. Moreover, wbile tbe green economy and tbe green building sector are often referred to as coherent sectors, witb agreed and consistent practices, our evidence suggests tbat they are far from agreed, tbat business models vary, and tbat tbere are significant contradictions within so-called green building practices. Tbe paper contributes to tbe development of sociotecbnical transitions tbeory and suggests tbat tbe MLP needs to incorporate complexity and multiplicity witbin nicbes, tbat niches may be inberently conflictual ratber tban consensual, and tbat tbe concept of 'protection' for nicbes is problematic.
The past thirty years have seen an explosion of interest and concern over the detrimental impacts of economic and industrial development. Despite this, the environmental agenda has not featured substantially in the regional studies literature. This paper explores a range of options for regional futures from a 'clean tech' economy and the promise of renewed accumulation, through to more radical degrowth concepts focused on altering existing modes of production and consumption, ecological sustainability and social justice. In so doing, we investigate the potential role of regions as drivers of the new green economy, drawing on research into sustainability transitions.
This article is focused upon exploring the development of the green economy in particular locations, with the aim of identifying why some cities and regions have been successful in engendering green growth. To date we have little idea where the green economy is developing, nor much insight, beyond anecdotal evidence, into why certain cities and regions appear to be more successful than others in this regard. We position our analysis within the context of research on socio-technical transitions that has theorized the potential shift to a more sustainable economy. We review the literature on sustainability transitions and the development of the multi-level perspective encompassing niches, regimes and landscapes. However, most research into socio-technical transitions has not given adequate consideration to the influence of places and spatial scale in these transition processes, and we therefore critique the socio-technical transitions literature from a geographical perspective. In this article we are interested in four key questions. What role does the enabling and facilitative state play in these cities and regions? What new institutional forms and governance structures are being developed? How do actors in particular cities and regions construct their green vision, and how do they encourage other actors to buy-in to this vision? How are links across levels and spatial scales developed to connect niches with the regime? We address these through a focus upon the Boston city-region in the USA, drawing upon both primary and secondary research material. We utilize this case study example to re-examine and re-theorize work on sustainability transitions from a spatial perspective.
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