Understanding the Entrepreneur's Responses to the Water Crisis

Abstract

Climate change, including drought, is an important threat to sustainable development. Entrepreneurial businesses are undeniable due to their acceptance and adaptation to environmental changes to respond to critical conditions. This research has been done with the aim of "analyzing the responses of entrepreneurs to the water crisis". In addition to identifying the answers, the effects of the water crisis on entrepreneurs and the consequences of the entrepreneurs' actions on the business performance were identified. In terms of results, this research is practical and of a qualitative type of case study. The research community is entrepreneurial businesses in the three provinces of Fars, Hormozgan, and Isfahan and the field of activity: agriculture, food products, tourism, mineral and industrial materials, and animal husbandry that were affected by the water crisis. Purposeful sampling method was used and data collection was done through in-depth and semi-structured interviews between February and March of 2022, which reached theoretical saturation after conducting 13 interviews. Data analysis was done by qualitative content analysis. The findings showed that the water crisis had an impact on two stages of the business value chain, i.e. "supply chain" and "production chain". Supply chain impacts include impacts on water resources and raw materials, and production impacts include impacts on products, process, assets, and production factors. The results indicate that entrepreneurs have reacted to these effects with three strategies, diversification, cooperation contracts, and processes modification. It was also found that the response of entrepreneurs to the water crisis has positive and negative effects on aspects of the company's performance (operational performance, financial performance, social performance, environmental performance).

Keywords

• water crisis
• climate change
• strategy
• entrepreneurship
• performance