Exploring founder identity within sustainable entrepreneurship: the case of the ´green start-up program' from the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU)

• Autor(a) principal: Terveen, Nele Marie
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/104635
• topic: Sustainable entrepreneurship; Founder identity; Sustainable start-ups; Venture imprinting; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Economia e Gestão

This qualitative study, based on semi-structured interviews, analyses in what wayfounder identity (a person’s social and role identity) shapes the imprinting of sustainable start-ups in the early start-up stage. Itdraws uponFauchart and Gruber’s characterization on social identities and Stryker’s concept of role identities.This study finds two distinct types of founder identities, Darwinian traits (rather profit-driven) and pure Missionaries(impact-driven), and identifies their contrasting behavior across six emerging themes on venture imprinting: Impact Prioritizing, Open Source Approach, Pricing Strategy, Leading/Corporate Culture, Profit Appropriation and Sense of Ownership.Key findings regarding Darwinian traits of sustainable entrepreneurs demonstrate an extrinsic motivationtowards sustainable impact as a downstream activity.Founders apply professional business logics across the venture imprinting themes.Thiscontradicts, and thus expands,literature about sustainable entrepreneurs thatmainlyfinds Missionary traits.