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Sustainability-oriented entrepreneurs are important actors in addressing grand societal challenges, they introduce new products and services, but also conduct so-called system-changing activities, such as creating awareness, building shared infrastructure and lobbying for supportive legislation. This paper seeks to understand how entrepreneurs contribute to a sustainability transition through system-changing and business activities by conducting a survey with almost 100 company representatives working within the plastic sector. We conceptualize eight groups of system-changing activities and find companies spend most time on product, service and technology development. Conversely, businesses spent least time on influencing institutions and standardization, though many indicated they would prefer to allocate more time to collaborating with industry and government institutions. Our study empirically confirms that businesses do not only devote time and resources to business development, but also to system-changing actions. Especially respondents who perceive their company a necessary actor in the sustainability transition, were more likely to conduct system-changing activities. This led us to introduce the term ‘transition-oriented entrepreneur’, who seeks to deliver environmental or social benefits, achieve business profit and proactively change the system in which they operate. We recommend key stakeholders in sustainability transitions to take on a systems perspective and to identify which system-changing activities need more time and resources in order to accelerate systemic change of their production and consumption system. Moreover, we recommend making entrepreneurs aware of their possible power and influence in changing the system, to increase their agency and accelerate system change.

This paper is amongst the first to examine coopetition strategy for sustainable development at the network level. Companies who want to successfully implement complex innovative technologies that support sustainable development need to collaborate with other actors of the innovation ecosystem, including their competitors, so that they can develop standards, interoperable products, pool knowledge, and resources and bundle forces to compete against other technologies. Collaboration with competitors brings benefits, but also many risks. We investigated how firms cope with these risks when establishing an innovation ecosystem to implement a new technology in society. We conducted research in the Dutch smart grids sector and explored how these firms minimize inherent risks of coopetition. We found that system-building actors in the Dutch smart grid field not only minimize inherent risks, but from the start of their collaboration they implement so-called enablers to prevent these risks upfront.

In this paper, we explore the role of entrepreneurs in stimulating the transition towards a new system in which marine plastic pollution is mitigated. To reduce plastic pollution of waterways and oceans, all types of system actors are needed. Producers need to increase recycled content, governments need to enact bans and improve waste management, research institutions need to develop alternative materials, NGOs need to raise awareness and consumers must be willing to choose different products. In this systems change towards reduced marine pollution, entrepreneurs also have a role to play as niche innovators that build momentum toward more sustainable socio-technical systems (Dijkstra, van Beukering and Brouwer, 2021). This forces incumbents to adapt (Hockerts and Wüstenhagen, 2010).

In our in-depth case study on two circular business models we found important roles for material scouts and networks. These key partners are essential for establishing circular business models and circular flow of materials. Besides, we diagnose that companies are having difficulties to develop viable value propositions and circular strategies. The paper was presented at NBM Nijmegen 2020 and will be published at a later date

Paper presented at EURAM 2019: Exploring the Future of Management, Lisbon. Solution ecosystems can help to solve or minimize societal problems. A wide range of different actors are involved in co-creating a solution. Together, they form a ‘solution ecosystem’. They co-create different forms of value for different stakeholder groups. They create value at the ecosystem level, for different stakeholder groups. Moreover, they create system-resources. Value capture and distribution among ecosystem actors can therefore be challenging. Moreover, little is known on the role of ecosystem orchestration and goal-alignment of ecosystem actors. In this paper, we shed light on these aspects with a case study of an emerging solution ecosystem that develops a circular urban area in the Netherlands, with the aim of tackling a number of societal problems. We explore the challenges this solution ecosystem faces with regards to value creation, value capture and distribution, ecosystem orchestration and goal alignment. We conclude with avenues for future research on solution ecosystems that enable sustainability transitions. Submission to track ST13_08 - The inner life of business ecosystems, http://www.euramonline.org/annual-conference-2019.html

For their technological sustainability innovations to become successful, entrepreneurs can strategically shape the technological field in which they are involved. The technological innovation systems (TISs) literature has generated valuable insights into the processes which need to be stimulated for the successful development and implementation of innovative sustainability technologies. To explore the applicability of the TIS framework from the perspective of entrepreneurs, we conducted a case study in the Dutch smart grids sector. We found that the TIS framework generally matches the perspectives of entrepreneurs. For its use by entrepreneurs, we suggest a slight adaptation of this framework. The process ‘Market formation’ needs to be divided into processes that are driven by the government and processes that are driven by entrepreneurs. There should be a greater emphasis on collaborative marketing, on changing user behaviour and preferences and on the development of fair and feasible business mo...

The implementation of innovative sustainability technologies often requires far reaching changes of the macro environment in which the innovating firms operate. Strategic management literature describes that firms who want to commercialize an innovative technology can collaborate in networks or industry clusters to build up a favourable environment for their technology. This increases the chances of successful diffusion and adoption of the technology in society. However, the strategic management literature does not offer advice on how to strategically build up this supportive external environment. We fill this gap with complementary insights from the technological innovation systems literature. We introduce the concept of strategic collective system building. Collective system building describes processes and activities networks of actors can strategically engage in to collectively build up a favourable environment for their innovative sustainability technology. Furthermore, we develop a strategy framework for collective system building. To underpin the theoretical analysis empirically, we conducted a case study in the Dutch smart grids field. The resulting strategy framework consists of four key areas for strategy making: technology development and optimization, market creation, socio-cultural changes and coordination. Each of these key strategic areas is composed of a set of system building activities

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‘Panta rhei’ was the immortal wisdom, spoken over 2,500 years ago by the Greek philosopher Herakleitos. ‘Everything flows’; everything changes and nothing remains the same. More than ever, this is true for the competitive environment of many organizations. Whether resulting from technological progress, new regulations, globalizing economy or inventive competitors, new developments change the marketplace every day. Organizations are continuously reacting to these changes, or anticipating new ones, by introducing new products and services, improving business processes, changing resources, expanding their activities or discarding obsolete activities. Selecting the right changes and organizing and managing them in an effective and efficient way is, for many organizations, a critical success factor for business agility and continuous success. Many of these changes are managed as projects: unique efforts that require the mobilization of resources of different disciplines, capabilities and organizational units. Project management is developing into the key organizational skill in order to execute these changes in a controlled manner