Entrepreneurship and sustainability

Entrepreneurship is usually thought of as a feature of the capitalist economy and an intrinsic element in its ongoing expansion, and therefore a contributor to decreasing sustainability. As argued by Schumpeter, entrepreneurs do the “creative” destruction as they apply the merciless logic of profit to traditional communities whose lifestyles make no financial sense even if they make cultural sense and are quite sustainable. In this chapter, we argue an alternative and a much more hopeful perspective on entrepreneurship. We view entrepreneurship as a potential force for sustainability. It can bring sustainability notonly to the global capitalist economy and capitalist societies, but also to non-capitalist societies. In doing so, entrepreneurship can result in the formation of a complementary set of economies that are mutually compatible and together create a diversified and intricate network giving rise to a sustainable global system. To make this argument, we discuss the concepts of entrepreneurship and sustainability; we propose a sustainability approach to entrepreneurship, and explore Indigenous entrepreneurship as a model that reconciles entrepreneurial and sustainability ideas. We end the chapter with suggestions for alternate, more meaningful forms of wealth and with concluding thoughts on the potential of entrepreneurship to provide a solution for sustainability.

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