TY - JOUR

T1 - Sustainability impact assessment of new ventures

T2 - An emerging field of research

AU - Fichter, Klaus

AU - Lüdeke-Freund, Florian

AU - Schaltegger, Stefan

AU - Schillebeeckx, Simon J.D.

N1 - Funding Information: In April 2021, we conducted a workshop to identify promising papers. The research interaction that was initiated with this workshop started a research stream on sustainability assessment and forecasting of sustainable ventures that has culminated in this special issue and that has inspired further researchers to continue exploring new approaches in this emerging field of research. Our thank-you goes to all workshop presenters and discussants. Klaus Fichter would like to express his sincere thanks to the Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law at Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg for their support, which made it possible to publish this paper as an Open Access article. Simon JD Schillebeeckx gratefully acknowledges the support of the Lee Kong Chian Fellowship from Singapore Management University for the article. We are grateful for the support we received as guest editors of the Special Issue ‘Assessing and forecasting the sustainability impacts of new ventures: Theories, methods and empirical evidence’ of the Journal of Cleaner Production. We are very thankful for the great support we received from Cecilia M. V. B. Almeida, Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Cleaner Production, and the over 30 experts who served as reviewers. Funding Information: Simon JD Schillebeeckx gratefully acknowledges the support of the Lee Kong Chian Fellowship from Singapore Management University for the article. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors

PY - 2023/1/15

Y1 - 2023/1/15

N2 - Entrepreneurs and start-ups are key actors in implementing environmental innovation and accelerating sustainability transitions. Thus, analyzing as well as predicting the impact of entrepreneurial ventures is central to management and entrepreneurship research. The sustainability performance, value and impact of incumbent firms and their products and services has been a key topic in business-related sustainability research for many years. However, assessing the sustainability effects of new ventures such as start-ups is a neglected area in the research literature. This article therefore provides an overview, including key definitions, a new conceptual framework, and notions that can help guide and inspire a future research agenda. In this way, it also serves as an introductory article for the Journal of Cleaner Production's special issue ‘Assessing and forecasting the sustainability impact of new ventures: Theories, methods, and empirical evidence’.

AB - Entrepreneurs and start-ups are key actors in implementing environmental innovation and accelerating sustainability transitions. Thus, analyzing as well as predicting the impact of entrepreneurial ventures is central to management and entrepreneurship research. The sustainability performance, value and impact of incumbent firms and their products and services has been a key topic in business-related sustainability research for many years. However, assessing the sustainability effects of new ventures such as start-ups is a neglected area in the research literature. This article therefore provides an overview, including key definitions, a new conceptual framework, and notions that can help guide and inspire a future research agenda. In this way, it also serves as an introductory article for the Journal of Cleaner Production's special issue ‘Assessing and forecasting the sustainability impact of new ventures: Theories, methods, and empirical evidence’.

KW - Business model

KW - Entrepreneurship

KW - Framework

KW - Impact assessment

KW - Start-up

KW - Sustainability

KW - System levels

KW - Venture

KW - business model

KW - entrepreneurship

KW - Framework

KW - impact assessment

KW - Start-up

KW - sustainability

KW - System levels

KW - Venture

KW - Sustainability sciences, Management & Economics

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85144599375&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.135452

DO - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.135452

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85144599375

VL - 384

JO - Journal of Cleaner Production

JF - Journal of Cleaner Production

SN - 0959-6526

M1 - 135452

ER -