Entrepreneurial practices and the constitution of environmental value for sustainability

Abstract

Environmental value is a central concept in entrepreneurship research addressing issues of sustainability. However, current accounts often reduce environmental value to predefined categories that can be realized through individual business activities and thus underplay the relational and collective efforts for value to be constituted. We address this by blending theories of entrepreneurship as practices of social change with insights from valuation studies. We further invoke the relationality and materiality of practice perspectives and examine how value is constituted in entrepreneurial practices. Drawing on the analysis of visual and textual data, we develop a model of interlocked entrepreneurial practices composed of articulating matters of concern, performing value cuts, and including human actors. These practices give contours to an apparatus of valuation that establishes, enacts, and stabilizes environmental value. Our study contributes to and has implications for rethinking environmental value in entrepreneurship research. It further adds to the discussion of materiality and (non)human agency and value creation in entrepreneurship studies for environmental sustainability.

Sustainable entrepreneurship on digital platforms and the enactment of digital connectivity through business models

“…This issue has largely been ignored in research on sustainability and digital platforms, forming the second major contribution of this article (Ashman et al, 2018; Mardon et al, 2018). Moreover, this adds to research on the dispersed agency in entrepreneurial processes (Doganova & Eyquem‐Renault, 2009; Garud, 2021; Garud et al, 2018; Gregori & Holzmann, 2022).…”

“…Secondly, we elaborate on how entrepreneurial action is affected by the agency of digital platform technology that prompts unplannable and uncontrollable changes. The study adds to our knowledge about how digital agencies intervene in entrepreneurial efforts to make sustainability visible and how business models are practiced, contributing to research on the dispersed agency in entrepreneurial processes (Garud et al, 2018; Gregori & Holzmann, 2022). Based on this, we present practical implications and conclude with limitations and future research opportunities.…”

Food supplier sorting model for strategic supply chain sustainable development

“…The concept of sustainability comes from the definition of sustainable development, the principle of which is to guarantee the current production of organizations without compromising the resources of future generations (Gregori & Holzmann, 2022). According to Sarkis and Dhavale (2015), the model is configured by three types of responsibilities: social, environmental, and economic.…”

“…The concept of sustainability comes from the definition of sustainable development, the principle of which is to guarantee the current production of organizations without compromising the resources of future generations (Gregori & Holzmann, 2022).…”

Does the agglomeration of high-tech industries improve the efficiency of China’s green economy? Analysis based on the marketization

“…Taking five emerging economies in the BRICS countries as the object of study, Zhao and Rasoulinezhad (2023) found that natural resource utilization efficiency drives green economic growth in the BRICS countries. In addition, there is literature on industrial agglomeration (Yang et al, 2022), urbanization (Martínez and Maruotti, 2011), factor inputs (Rashidi and Saen, 2015), entrepreneurial practices (Gregori and Holzmann, 2022) and other perspectives.…”