Theoretical assumptions of ecological entrepreneurship concept initiation and development

Today ecological entrepreneurship investigations are at the stage of the theory emerging, the majority of aspects and concepts are debatable, common opinions and generally recognized conceptual ideas are not available. One of the disputable aspects is understanding the meaning and the backgrounds of the ecological entrepreneurship initiation as well as the theoretical underpinning used for this purpose. The objective of this article is to analyze the academic literature on the ecological entrepreneurship to identify and generalize the applied theoretical concepts explaining the meaning and the backgrounds of the ecological entrepreneurship initiation. The article consists of six parts. The first part covers the principal theoretical concepts applied in the Russian and English language literatures to define the backgrounds of the ecological entrepreneurship initiation and development. The other four parts are devoted to more detailed consideration of the concepts mentioned in the first part. Conclusions on the results of the analysis and the suggestions for future investigations are described in the last part. The analysis of the ecological entrepreneurship theoretical frameworks showed that the investigators used different theoretical concepts, such as the theory of markets and states failures; the theory of the entrepreneurial potential; the concept of ecological updating; the innovation theory; the concept of the sustainable development; the theory of economic development on the basis of demands. Irrespective of the variety of the concepts applied, it can be noted that they don’t contradict to each other and are often combined in various combinations. It can be concluded that it is reasonable to apply the ecological entrepreneurship phenomenon of all the above mentioned theoretical approaches and concepts in future investigations in various combinations and to different extents.