Biodiversity loss and entrepreneurship: Empirical evidence on threat perceptions among primary-sector entrepreneurs in 28 European countries
Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Zeitschriftenaufsätze › Forschung › begutachtet
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in: Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 01.04.2025.
Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Zeitschriftenaufsätze › Forschung › begutachtet
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Biodiversity loss and entrepreneurship: Empirical evidence on threat perceptions among primary-sector entrepreneurs in 28 European countries
AU - Hirschmann, Mirko
AU - Fisch, Christian
AU - Farny, Steffen
PY - 2025/4/1
Y1 - 2025/4/1
N2 - Biodiversity loss is widespread and accelerating, threatening ecological systems and human wellbeing.Entrepreneurship and biodiversity loss are intertwined: entrepreneurs—especially in theprimary sector—are both causing and suffering from this loss in biodiversity. However, little isknown about the biodiversity-entrepreneurship nexus, in particular, how primary sector entrepreneursperceive the negative effects of their activities on nature and biodiversity loss.Addressing this glaring and policy-relevant research gap, we empirically investigate how 3,469entrepreneurs across 28 European countries perceive threats to biodiversity. Despite their closedependence on nature, our multilevel analyses show that primary sector entrepreneurs perceiveactivities related to the primary sector (e.g., intensive farming, intensive forestry, and overfishing)as less threatening to biodiversity loss than entrepreneurs in other sectors. However, thisdifference diminishes in countries with stronger reliance on the primary sector, suggesting anuanced interplay between economic dependencies and biodiversity threat perception. Our studycontributes to research on biodiversity and entrepreneurship, identifies crucial future researchareas, and offers policy implications that can help societies leverage biodiversity entrepreneurs,and entrepreneurship more generally, as a vehicle to combat biodiversity loss.
AB - Biodiversity loss is widespread and accelerating, threatening ecological systems and human wellbeing.Entrepreneurship and biodiversity loss are intertwined: entrepreneurs—especially in theprimary sector—are both causing and suffering from this loss in biodiversity. However, little isknown about the biodiversity-entrepreneurship nexus, in particular, how primary sector entrepreneursperceive the negative effects of their activities on nature and biodiversity loss.Addressing this glaring and policy-relevant research gap, we empirically investigate how 3,469entrepreneurs across 28 European countries perceive threats to biodiversity. Despite their closedependence on nature, our multilevel analyses show that primary sector entrepreneurs perceiveactivities related to the primary sector (e.g., intensive farming, intensive forestry, and overfishing)as less threatening to biodiversity loss than entrepreneurs in other sectors. However, thisdifference diminishes in countries with stronger reliance on the primary sector, suggesting anuanced interplay between economic dependencies and biodiversity threat perception. Our studycontributes to research on biodiversity and entrepreneurship, identifies crucial future researchareas, and offers policy implications that can help societies leverage biodiversity entrepreneurs,and entrepreneurship more generally, as a vehicle to combat biodiversity loss.
U2 - 10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00529
DO - 10.1016/j.jbvi.2025.e00529
M3 - Journal articles
JO - Journal of Business Venturing Insights
JF - Journal of Business Venturing Insights
SN - 2352-6734
ER -