Fostering sustainable entrepreneurship by business strategies: An explorative approach in the bioeconomy

Abstract

AbstractThe conceptual framework of bioeconomy advances sustainability by ensuring that environmental, social, and economic goals are met. Although numerous authors perceive bioeconomy as a key sector to achieve sustainable transformation, there is a lack of a comprehensive set of factors determining sustainable entrepreneurship in the bioeconomy sector. This study aims to identify factors influencing business strategies for sustainable entrepreneurship in the bioeconomy sector. This study uses the triangulation of research methods, including the entrepreneurial discovery process, as well as multiple‐criteria methods of the pairwise comparison and the analytic hierarchy process. This study serves as grounds for the identification of priority factors influencing the choice of relevant business strategies in the bioeconomy. Within the framework of the research, five core factors are specified: economic‐and‐financial, market, technological, ecological, organization‐and‐human resources, and legal. The findings reveal that the most significant factors are economic‐and‐financial and market factors that determine the choice of innovative and offensive strategies by bioeconomy enterprises. These strategies impact entrepreneurial decision‐making processes in the environmental and social areas, and they contribute to the development of more sustainable and entrepreneurial ecosystems. To advance the research on sustainable entrepreneurship, different theoretical perspectives are combined, including economics, strategic management, and innovation perspective.