Sustainable entrepreneurship, identity and context: A comparison of Norway and South Africa

Southern African Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Sustainable entrepreneurship, identity and context: A comparison of Norway and South Africa
 
Creator Rykkje, Oda Camilla Høvig, Øystein S. Pettersen, Inger Beate
 
Subject Entrepreneurship; sustainble entrepreneurship; Identity; Context sustainable entrepreneurship; identity; context; Norway; South Africa; life story approach.
Description Background: To reach a more sustainable future, sustainable entrepreneurship is proposed to play a critical role. To understand why sustainable entrepreneurs engage in a sustainable venture process, we need to understand the individual entrepreneur but also the context in which they operate.Aim: This research aims to explore what role context plays in forming sustainable entrepreneurs through their identity, by comparing Norwegian and South African sustainable entrepreneurs.Setting: The study compares sustainable entrepreneurs from Western Norway, Norway, and Stellenbosch, South Africa.Methods: A qualitative method, following a life story approach, was adopted. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the Norwegian and South African sustainable entrepreneurs, using a combination of face-to-face and online interviews. A three-stage approach was used to analyse the data; firstly individual, secondly by country context, and lastly by comparing cross-country.Results: The findings revealed that the context where the sustainable entrepreneurs operate greatly influences their identity and how they view entrepreneurship, sustainability, and their missions and goals with their ventures.Conclusion: Sustainable entrepreneurs’ identity is profoundly impacted in the context they live, and different contexts influence their perception and action on sustainability and venture creation, where social aspects of sustainability may be more prominent in an emerging economy and environmental aspects in an advanced economy.Contribution: The study contributes to the literature by enhancing our understanding of the relationship between context and sustainable entrepreneurship from advanced and emerging economies. The findings provide practical guidance to educators and policy makers on how sustainable entrepreneurship can be incentivised.
 
Publisher AOSIS Publishing
 
Contributor
Date 2023-12-27
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Life story approach; Qualitative method
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajesbm.v15i1.739
 
Source The Southern African Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management; Vol 15, No 1 (2023); 11 pages 2071-3185 2522-7343
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajesbm.co.za/index.php/sajesbm/article/view/739/906 https://sajesbm.co.za/index.php/sajesbm/article/view/739/907 https://sajesbm.co.za/index.php/sajesbm/article/view/739/908 https://sajesbm.co.za/index.php/sajesbm/article/view/739/909
 
Coverage Norway; South Africa — Sustainable entrepreneurs
Rights Copyright (c) 2023 Oda Camilla Rykkje, Øystein S. Høvig, Inger Beate Pettersen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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