Now with an understanding of the range of impacts on regional sustainability that these entrepreneurs intend to make, these impacts must be compared to the integrated concept of sustainability entrepreneurship that has been offered. These stakeholders have a wide range of goals for being agents of change in their communities, but how do these goals compare to the ideal of a sustainability entrepreneur? This broader definition of SE has offered a model of entrepreneurs committed to local sustainability goals but also concerned with creating shared value across the full chain of their activities, their use of strategy and business interests in conjunction with community goals, their flexibility in organizational structure and sensitivity to local socio-economic conditions and needs, and the need for supportive partnerships. How do the sustainability entrepreneurs in Greater New Orleans live out the characteristics of SE as defined in this concept?
This section shows to what extent these entrepreneurs embody the characteristics of SE identified in the different frameworks discussed in Section 2. In this
marginalized communities and forms of support for SE, there are 10 specific characteristics, listed in Table 1 in relation to the frameworks and studies that introduced them. These characteristics are also shown below in Table 25 in relation to the intended impacts of the different entrepreneur groups that have been discussed. These characteristics are compared only to the intended impacts of entrepreneurs, although in the future their activities and realized impacts in the community could be similarly evaluated. I focused on the three main groups in order not to single out any individual entrepreneur and to show the different ways that these groups embody parts of the theory on SE.
Table 25. Stakeholders in an Integrated Model of SE.
Organizational Models
Private Non-profit Hybrid
Characteristic
3 poles of sustainability High Moderate Very high
Innovative character Moderate High Very high
Motivation for social change Moderate Very high Very high Organizational model
dependent on mission Low Very high High
Creating value for
entrepreneur and community High Very high Very high
Maximizing community value
across activities High Moderate Moderate
Working towards local
sustainability goals Moderate High Very high
Linking sustainable practices
to strategic priorities Very high Moderate Moderate
Socio-economic sensitization Moderate Very high High
Need for support High High High
Private
The intended impacts of private sector entrepreneurs matched up to several characteristics of SE very well, such as incorporating sustainability goals within strategic
business interests and creating shared value. These characteristics validated propositions from Porter & Kramer (2006), in which the goals that business owners expressed aligned closely with the authors’ description of effective corporate social responsibility which must be wed to key business interests and not only be a peripheral concern. The words of this stakeholder illustrate this relationship between business and sustainability interests:
“a lot of times people will say “Why would an electric company care?” …you’ve got wetlands as a natural barrier to storms…if you don’t have those natural barriers, the powerlines come down, the electric service is interrupted, you’ve got the added cost of backup generators to emergency facilities. … it’s all a very dynamic, sort of organic working relationship between the environment and the business”
(Anonymous, personal communication, August 24, 2012).
However, business owners did not express flexibility in their organizational models, probably due to their intent to start a business or their inability to influence corporate structure. These leaders showed a moderate level of innovation and, on average, some interest in social change, although one entrepreneur, the owner of a brewery, exemplified the community ethos of SE in Allen & Malin (2008). Overall, these business leaders exemplified the strategic, value-oriented characteristics of SE, which amplified their community impact goals despite lower emphasis on aspects such as socio-economic sensitivity.
Non-profit
Entrepreneurs displayed different aspects of the SE model in their intended impacts. These individuals showed a much stronger commitment to social change which drove the structure of their organizations, very much in the vision of social entrepreneurship in Austin et al. (2006). These leaders were also very sensitive to the needs of communities, often targeting their efforts specifically at high-need populations and seeking to harmonize their efforts with local cultural values as in O’Neill et al.
(2006). However, these entrepreneurs were also highly innovative, employing many different models and approaches to their organizational mission. This entrepreneur describes how her agency has achieved financial viability while continuing to strive towards its goal of recycling building materials:
“we have a wonderful structure here, in that the more successful we are at putting building materials back into reuse, through sale to the public, the better our financial situation is. Which, you know the big buzzword in non-profits these days is to be financially sustainable and have a business model that helps you fund it. Which is great. So many of my friends are in the business, you know, struggling to find something that provides an income for the organization, but it’s really hard to find one that sometimes is exactly on mission”
(Anonymous, personal communication, August 8, 2012).
Hybrid
Finally, hybrid entrepreneurs embodied the SE model better than the other two groups. These leaders showed a strong validation of both the innovative character of SE in Tilley & Young (2009) and the commitment to social change and shared value while working directly toward regional sustainability goals. This strong overlap between organizational and societal goals for sustainable development strongly validates Dagevos & Evers (2008), as illustrated in the goal of this stakeholder whose organizational mission is the same regional vision for improved storm water management from the Common Vision:
“The vision we’re advocating isn’t a return to the swampland…but to understand [that]…the problem with water, in some ways [is] incredibly simply. You create a space for that water to go, and that water isn’t flooding your streets and your homes. So it’s a matter of…looking at the landscape, and creating those spaces for water…what we’re saying is we could learn from what existed before, the canals and bayous that existed before, and say we need a…city where water is, once again, part of the identity of the urban landscape”
(Anonymous, personal communication, August 12, 2012).
At the same time, hybrid entrepreneurs were highly sensitive to local needs and conditions, although not as much as their non-profit counterparts. These leaders had less of an emphasis on maximizing their value chains than private sector entrepreneurs, partly due to the fact that their activities are less characterized by the activities in corporate value chains as defined by Fearne et al. (2012). However, this group displayed the greatest amount of similarity with the SE model, perhaps due to their place at the intersection of different organizational models and their ability to blend different approaches and goals.
Overall SE Network
Overall, these entrepreneurs were highly consistent with the model that has been proposed for sustainability entrepreneurship. Although some differences exist between the stakeholder groups and the parts of the SE theory that they demonstrate, they share a common reflection of strong characteristics of the framework. They each show a concern for all three basic aspects of sustainability, and all expressed a need for greater partnerships and support to achieve greater impacts. These leaders validate the integrated theory that has been constructed in Section 2 in different ways. Sustainable business leaders exemplify the strengths of corporate social responsibility as approached from strategic calculus instead of cost avoidance or public relations; non-profit leaders show aspects of the strong mission of social change and sensitization to the needs of target communities while bringing sustainable innovations through their varied approaches; and hybrid leaders bring these elements together while showing a strong commitment to goals for regional sustainable development. Although these different kinds of sustainability entrepreneurs demonstrate different aspects of SE, they play to the strengths of their backgrounds and together represent a highly coherent representation of a fuller model of SE.