The Impact Circle: A New Design-Based Method for Developing Business Opportunities with Sustainable Impact

Marc Karahan and Caro Noemi Stoeckermann
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Marc Karahan: Technical University of Berlin
Caro Noemi Stoeckermann: Technical University of Berlin

A chapter in Progress in Entrepreneurship Education and Training, 2023, pp 337-353 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract In sustainable entrepreneurship education (SEE), participants frequently take on the role of would-be entrepreneurs and develop business ideas that contribute to sustainable development. Due to the complexity of entrepreneurial tasks, educators require adequate tools and methods that facilitate the participants’ learning. However, methods for sustainable entrepreneurship are generally scarce, and most existing approaches are either ill-suited for the educational context or encourage users to add new sustainability features to business ideas rather than challenging underlying value creation mechanisms. Hence, a new approach is needed to emphasize sustainability at the center of business model innovation while being suitable for SEE. Based on Koestler’s concept of bisociation, which implies joining seemingly unrelated or conflicting information from different domains, we developed a new method for discovering sustainable business ideas—the Impact Circle. The 2-year development process comprised 8 workshops with 164 participants and multiple scientific methods. We contribute to research and practice by outlining the iterative development process and describing the Impact Circle’s application. Furthermore, we provide novel insights into bisociation as a phenomenon in entrepreneurial cognition and creativity.

Keywords: Sustainable entrepreneurship; Education; Method; Teaching (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:fgfchp:978-3-031-28559-2_22

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-28559-2_22

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