TY - JOUR

T1 - Designing Understanding: Sustainability Entrepreneurs Connect with Adopters

AU - Eising-Mertsch, Leonie

AU - Weisenfeld, Ursula

AU - Buhr, Maike

PY - 2025/6/17

Y1 - 2025/6/17

N2 - Sustainability entrepreneurs introduce practices to solve pressing environmental and social problems, but widespread adoption of these sustainability practices by consumers and users is a challenge. This conceptual paper examines "designing understanding" as balancing familiarity with novelty to address this challenge. It develops a typology of designing understanding for the adoption of sustainability practices based on entrepreneurial motivation and adopter preferences, emphasizing the agency of both entrepreneurs and adopters, thereby bridging entrepreneurship with innovation and adoption research. The types differ in framing approaches and adoption effectiveness. We illustrate the typology with examples from sharing practices in the fashion industry.

AB - Sustainability entrepreneurs introduce practices to solve pressing environmental and social problems, but widespread adoption of these sustainability practices by consumers and users is a challenge. This conceptual paper examines "designing understanding" as balancing familiarity with novelty to address this challenge. It develops a typology of designing understanding for the adoption of sustainability practices based on entrepreneurial motivation and adopter preferences, emphasizing the agency of both entrepreneurs and adopters, thereby bridging entrepreneurship with innovation and adoption research. The types differ in framing approaches and adoption effectiveness. We illustrate the typology with examples from sharing practices in the fashion industry.

U2 - 10.5465/AMPROC.2025.22177abstract

DO - 10.5465/AMPROC.2025.22177abstract

M3 - Conference article in journal

VL - 2025

SP - 22177

JO - Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings

JF - Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings

SN - 0065-0668

IS - 1

ER -