Profit first, environmental impact second? Investigating hybrid institutional logics in venture capital investment approaches

Meike Siefkes, Anton Lohne Hamer, Gustav Haaland and Øyvind Bjørgum

Business Strategy and the Environment, 2024, vol. 33, issue 8, 7922-7941

Abstract: Despite a potential mismatch between characteristics of cleantech innovations and the venture capital model, there has been a surge of cleantech venture capital firms (VCs). This paper investigates how cleantech VC investment approaches are aligned with hybrid institutional logics. We mapped 36 European VCs regarding their portfolio firms' industries, technology focus, and level of innovation. From this sample, we interviewed nine VC investors to gain a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon. The findings show a heterogenous landscape of cleantech VC investment approaches. Cleantech VCs finance mostly incremental innovations in highly emissive sectors. For several of the VCs, the findings highlight a disconnect between the externally communicated cleantech mission and lack of approaches for environmental impact management. We develop propositions for future research. This study adds novel empirical perspectives and contributes to the development of hybrid logics in institutional logics theory with a nuanced examination of the European VC cleantech market.

Date: 2024
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