Sustainable Entrepreneurship Lectures
Lecture 1
The Brundtland Report = Sustainable development is development that meets the needs
of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their
own needs.
Limits to Growth - The club of Rome:
- the earth’s interlocking resources -
- Man can create a society in which he can live indefinitely on earth if he imposes
limits on himself and his production of material goods to achieve a state of global
equilibrium with population and production in carefully selected balance.
Emerging Davids = start-up and young companies introducing disruptive innovations.
Their focus lies on environmental & social performance and they try to gain market share
from that ideology.
- Start-ups / new small firms.
- Disruptive innovation.
- More innovative and not limited by previous mindsets. They are trying to be part of
the solution.
- Value-based approach and externalize costs by asking customers to pay a
premium price for socially and environmentally superior products.
- Environmental objectives at least as important as economic objectives.
- Tend to have a single-issue focus. Not good at addressing a broader range of
sustainability issues. The idealistic approach can also lead to little or less attention
to growth strategies.
Greening Goliaths = represent larger incumbent firms using incremental innovation to
bring about sustainable development. These firms already have a high market share and
are incrementally adopting sustainable practices to increase their environmental & social
performance.
, - Large existing firms
- Incumbents (firms) may be slow to react, but are able to catch up quickly when they
do decide to follow. They may also benefit from being able to charge premium
prices following the price level established by start-ups.
- They can launch Venture Capital funds to monitor innovating davids.
- They may be able to influence the setting (or reduce) of the environmental
standards in their favor due to their market power.
- They may try to keep standards fixed rather than encourage continuous improvement
- Sustainable Corporate Entrepreneurship only when they make use of disruptive
innovation.
Not all companies are greening goliaths and not all companies are emerging davids.
- Emerging Davids are really putting environmental and social performance very high
on their agenda, while other startups are putting it lower and not doing anything
radical to tackle the issues.
How to change from original point to sustainable transformation of an industry?
- Greening Goliaths need to use process innovation to reduce the costs due to
greening.
- Emerging Davids need to scale up operations in order to increase their market
share.
Authors argue that incremental solutions will not be enough to maintain critical levels of
natural and social capital. There is need for transformational change.
Definition of sustainable entrepreneurship:
The discovery and exploitation of economic opportunties through the generation of market
disequilibria that initiate the transformation of a sector towards an environmentally and
socially more sustainable state.
1
,Model is about the diffusion of sustainable products in society.
- For Davids when they go from local activism to forming actual start-ups it means they
are entering the early growth stage.
- When an existing brand starts introducing new products / brands that are more
sustainable it is in the early growth stage.
- Goliaths can also buy Davids in the take-off stage. Davids will voluntarily be acquired
when they think they can have a bigger impact by being acquired than they could on
their own. Goliaths on the other hand can also try to impact the adoption by
leveraging their power to try to control the current standards to remain the same. This
could be beneficial to them as they would not have to change.
2
,Sustainable Archetypes - Bocken et al., (2014)
The archetypes of the sustainable business model. A firm could build upon several of these
archetypes.
3
, Three box model:
- Value proposition; product/ service offering, customer segments & relations.
- Value creation & delivery; key activities delivering value through new opportunities,
markets and revenue streams. Delivery: key resources, channels, partners,
technology.
- Value capture; cost structure & revenue stream
Creating value from waste:
Example for Spotify:
4
Lecture 1
The Brundtland Report = Sustainable development is development that meets the needs
of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their
own needs.
Limits to Growth - The club of Rome:
- the earth’s interlocking resources -
- Man can create a society in which he can live indefinitely on earth if he imposes
limits on himself and his production of material goods to achieve a state of global
equilibrium with population and production in carefully selected balance.
Emerging Davids = start-up and young companies introducing disruptive innovations.
Their focus lies on environmental & social performance and they try to gain market share
from that ideology.
- Start-ups / new small firms.
- Disruptive innovation.
- More innovative and not limited by previous mindsets. They are trying to be part of
the solution.
- Value-based approach and externalize costs by asking customers to pay a
premium price for socially and environmentally superior products.
- Environmental objectives at least as important as economic objectives.
- Tend to have a single-issue focus. Not good at addressing a broader range of
sustainability issues. The idealistic approach can also lead to little or less attention
to growth strategies.
Greening Goliaths = represent larger incumbent firms using incremental innovation to
bring about sustainable development. These firms already have a high market share and
are incrementally adopting sustainable practices to increase their environmental & social
performance.
, - Large existing firms
- Incumbents (firms) may be slow to react, but are able to catch up quickly when they
do decide to follow. They may also benefit from being able to charge premium
prices following the price level established by start-ups.
- They can launch Venture Capital funds to monitor innovating davids.
- They may be able to influence the setting (or reduce) of the environmental
standards in their favor due to their market power.
- They may try to keep standards fixed rather than encourage continuous improvement
- Sustainable Corporate Entrepreneurship only when they make use of disruptive
innovation.
Not all companies are greening goliaths and not all companies are emerging davids.
- Emerging Davids are really putting environmental and social performance very high
on their agenda, while other startups are putting it lower and not doing anything
radical to tackle the issues.
How to change from original point to sustainable transformation of an industry?
- Greening Goliaths need to use process innovation to reduce the costs due to
greening.
- Emerging Davids need to scale up operations in order to increase their market
share.
Authors argue that incremental solutions will not be enough to maintain critical levels of
natural and social capital. There is need for transformational change.
Definition of sustainable entrepreneurship:
The discovery and exploitation of economic opportunties through the generation of market
disequilibria that initiate the transformation of a sector towards an environmentally and
socially more sustainable state.
1
,Model is about the diffusion of sustainable products in society.
- For Davids when they go from local activism to forming actual start-ups it means they
are entering the early growth stage.
- When an existing brand starts introducing new products / brands that are more
sustainable it is in the early growth stage.
- Goliaths can also buy Davids in the take-off stage. Davids will voluntarily be acquired
when they think they can have a bigger impact by being acquired than they could on
their own. Goliaths on the other hand can also try to impact the adoption by
leveraging their power to try to control the current standards to remain the same. This
could be beneficial to them as they would not have to change.
2
,Sustainable Archetypes - Bocken et al., (2014)
The archetypes of the sustainable business model. A firm could build upon several of these
archetypes.
3
, Three box model:
- Value proposition; product/ service offering, customer segments & relations.
- Value creation & delivery; key activities delivering value through new opportunities,
markets and revenue streams. Delivery: key resources, channels, partners,
technology.
- Value capture; cost structure & revenue stream
Creating value from waste:
Example for Spotify:
4
