Title: Collaborative entrepreneurship for sustainability. Creating solutions in light of the UN sustainable development goals

Authors: Stefan Schaltegger; Markus Beckmann; Kai Hockerts

Addresses: Centre for Sustainability Management (CSM), Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Scharnhorststr, 1, D-21335 Lüneburg, Germany ' Corporate Sustainability Management, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Findelgasse 7/9, D-90402 Nuremberg, Germany ' Copenhagen Business School, Dalgas Have 15, 2000 Frederkisberg, Denmark

Abstract: Sustainable entrepreneurship is seen as a promising approach aiming to solve complex social, environmental, and economic problems with innovative solutions. Whilst the concept of collaboration provides an important conceptual overlap between the entrepreneurship and sustainability literatures, it has so far received little attention in sustainable entrepreneurship research. The purpose of this article is to explore links between collaborative entrepreneurship and sustainable development. Sustainability challenges increase the importance for entrepreneurial collaboration in three ways: first, for cross-actor participation within entrepreneurial processes; second, for coordinating across sustainability issues and between entrepreneurial solutions; and third, for cross-sector cooperation between different forms of entrepreneurship such as social entrepreneurship, sustainable entrepreneurship, and policy entrepreneurship. We show how understanding this link between collaborative entrepreneurship and sustainable development sheds new light on both entrepreneurship theory and practice as well as sustainability research.

Keywords: sustainable entrepreneurship; sustainable development goals; UN SDGs; collaborative entrepreneurship; sustainable development; environmental entrepreneurship; social entrepreneurship; policy entrepreneurship; United Nations.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEV.2018.092709

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing, 2018 Vol.10 No.2, pp.131 - 152

Published online: 28 Jun 2018 *

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