Green start-ups – a new typology for sustainable entrepre-neurship and innovation research

Abstract

There is a growing political consensus about the necessity to decouple economic growth from environmental impacts. For a transition towards a green economy radical innovation plays a central role. Start-ups are key marketin the development and market introduction of radical sustainable innovation, but so far there is little research on the specific challenges and opportunities of “green” start-ups. In this conceptual paper, we bring together research and theory on entrepreneurship and innovation as well as sustainable business practice and ask why and how different types of “green” start-ups may encounter specific financing challenges and opportunities when developing their products/services. As existing typologies are too unspecific to properly explain the financing challenges and opportunities of green start-ups, we elaborate on these and develop a new typology of green start-ups. This typology will enable further empirical exploration of specific challenges and opportunities that such start-ups have when looking for finance.

Keywords

• sustainable innovation
• sustainable entrepreneurship
• green start-ups
• typology
• entrepreneur
• strategy
• green products and services
• finance.