The Green Entrepreneur: Visionary, Maverick or Opportunist?

David W. Taylor and Liz E. E. Walley
Additional contact information
David W. Taylor: Manchester Metropolitan University Business School
Liz E. E. Walley: Manchester Metropolitan University Business School

Microeconomics from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Given the importance of green entrepreneurs in the transition towards a truly sustainable society, this paper proposes frameworks for investigating the motives of entrepreneurs who set up green businesses. Different perceptions of 'green' are explored and although the paper focuses particularly on 'green-green' businesses, the scope for investigation encompasses all possible forms of green start-ups. The main approach taken in the paper is to review the literature on entrepreneurs generally, and approaches to classifying entrepreneurs with a view to gaining useful insights for the green context. An exploratory typology of green entrepreneurs is proposed, which has been adapted and developed from Thompson's four dimensions of entrepreneurship (1998). The terms 'ethical maverick', 'ad hoc environpreneur', 'visionary champion' and 'innovative opportunist' are coined to describe different motives or orientations of the green entrepreneur. Frameworks are proposed to investigate the motives of, and influences on, green entrepreneurs. The ultimate aim is to gain insights for policy makers and educators into ways to foster green entrepreneurship.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; sustainability; green; start-ups; motivation; typology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22 pages
Date: 2003-07-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ent and nep-mic
Note: Type of Document - Acrobat PDF; prepared on IBM PC; to print on HP laserjet 1200; pages: 22; figures: included in document. This Paper is part of the working paper series of the Manchester Metropolitan University Business School, United Kingdom.
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://econwpa.ub.uni-muenchen.de/econ-wp/mic/papers/0307/0307002.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wpa:wuwpmi:0307002

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Microeconomics from University Library of Munich, Germany
Bibliographic data for series maintained by EconWPA ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).