Sustainability in start-up ventures: what founders say versus what they do
| Pages | 246-255 |
| Published date | 12 October 2015 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/WJEMSD-05-2015-0025 |
| Date | 12 October 2015 |
| Author | Timothy Galpin,Julia Hebard |
| Subject Matter | Strategy,Business ethics,Sustainability |
Sustainability in start-up
ventures: what founders
say versus what they do
Timothy Galpin and Julia Hebard
Department of Management, Colorado State University,
Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
Abstract
Purpose –Although founders of start-up ventures seem to hold similar views about ethical, social,
and environmental principles as those in large firms, entrepreneurs tend to be focussed on their
immediate stakeholders, including customers, employees, suppliers, and investors. The purpose of this
paper is to compare founders’views –“what they say”–about sustainable business practices to their
described business models –“what they do.”
Design/methodology/approach –An opinion survey of prospective business start-up founders,
along with a content analysis of their business plans, is used to compare founders’views –“what they
say”–about sustainable business practices to their described business models –“what they do.”
Findings –Findings suggest that prospective business founders do value sustainable business practices.
However,the content of theirbusiness models doesnot reflect their espoused importance of sustainability.
Research limitations/implications –The main limitation of this study is that university students
in a business-planning course were used as surrogates for actual start-up venture founders. That being
the case, a small percentage ( just under 5 percent) of the students indicated at the end of the course that
they would like to continue pursuing the venture they helped develop a business plan for. To address
this, future research should focus on actual founders of new ventures.
Practical implications –The content analysis of the business plans revealed a marked disconnect
between the high-value founders reported to place on sustainability and the actual limited inclusion of
sustainability in their business models. Therefore, more work needs to be done to educate, encourage,
and coach start-up founders to raise their awareness of and desire to include sustainability as key parts
of their business models.
Originality/value –To date, no studies have attempted to compare start-up venture founders’views –
“what they say”–about sustainable business practices to their described business models –“whatthey do.”
Keywords Sustainability, Entrepreneurship, Start-up, Founders
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Sustainability has become the strategic imperative of the new millennium. The phrases
Sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Corporate Social Performance, Going
Green, and the “Triple Bottom Line”(Elkington, 1998) all refer to organizations enhancing
their long-term economic, social, and environmental performance. Both business leaders
and academics recognize that sustainability is important to the long-term success of firms
and the communities in which they operate, with numerous examples of organizations,
both large and small, that have seen success from their sustainability efforts ( Jenkins,
2009; Orlitzky et al., 2003; Wu, 2006). Moreover, there is an increased interest in sustainable
entrepreneurship as a phenomenon and a research topic (Cohen and Winn, 2007; Dean and
McMullen, 2007; Hockerts and Wüstenhagen, 2010). Hence, founders of start-up ventures
today can benefit from implementing sustainability efforts to enhance their viability over
the long term. But, do founders of start-up ventures regularly incorporate and reinforce
sustainable business practices in their business models?
World Journal of
Entrepreneurship, Management
and Sustainable Development
Vol. 11 No. 4, 2015
pp. 246-255
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
2042-5961
DOI10.1108/WJEMSD-05-2015-0025
Received 16 May 2015
Revised 16 May 2015
Accepted 7 June 2015
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2042-5961.htm
246
WJEMSD
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