Ecopreneurship and Green Growth in a Geographical Context

The industry plays a key role in connection to the environmental challenges the society face today. Innovation and entrepreneurship based on greener business solutions can be a fundamental measure in mitigating the negative environmental impact produced by current business activity.

The PhD research project focuses on processes and strategies to green entrepreneurship (ecopreneurship), and especially how these start-ups are influenced by the geographical surroundings. A main objective is to compare entrepreneurial processes that occur in centralized regions characterized by functional proximity, and start-ups that occur in areas that are less centralized. The regional differences will be determined on the basis of a methodological framework that applies several selection criteria’s such as proximity to research institutions, venture capital firms, business incubators and other entrepreneurial support services.

A deeper understanding on this subject is necessary to guide policymakers towards a more sustainable innovation policy.

The research activities are linked to the Green Economies networks, a network that consists of researchers and PhD students from several European universities. In the spring 2014, I will spend some weeks at the School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg. This visit is an arrangement between the members of the Green Economies Network, and is partly funded by the RESER PhD Mobility Grant.