Activists or Opportunists? How Environmental Entrepreneurs Differ From Conventional Ones

In light of the grand environmental challenges of our time, a change in how business is done seems necessary. Despite being a potential solution for the world’s most pressing issues, environmental entrepreneurship remains fairly unexplored, there is no agreement on its definition, and it is unclear how the concept differs from conventional entrepreneurship. Our exploratory multi-case study empirically validates the theoretical assumption of the differences between conventional and environmental entrepreneurs. We find that all entrepreneurs can be clustered on a continuum between opportunist and activist, conventional entrepreneurs being on the opportunist side and environmental entrepreneurs being rather on the activist side, but more dispersed across the continuum. A key difference between the two types is that opportunists serve existing market needs, while activists aim at educating their customers, or even society. These findings contribute to the delineation of the concept of environmental entrepreneurship, especially regarding what sets it apart from conventional entrepreneurship. Our outcomes thus advance the research dialogue about environmental entrepreneurship and suggest several avenues for further research.