Cultivating the Impact of Sustainable Entrepreneurship: A Discussion of Upscaling Approaches in Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

There is substantial knowledge about the peculiarities of founding entrepreneurial ventures in general. However, comparatively little is known so far about the characteristics of establishing sustainable ventures aiming at solving ecological or social problems in society. It is particularly uncertain how sustainable entrepreneurs could attain a successful upscaling of their venture ideas to expand their impact from a local niche at origin towards reaching broader society-wide impact. At this junction between local niche and the wider societal regime or landscape level, entrepreneurial ecosystems may play a key role in providing instrumental support for sustainable ventures. Entrepreneurial ecosystems offer initial support in the formation of new sustainable ventures but, also later, helping sustainable entrepreneurs in the upscaling of their sustainable venture ideas. In this chapter, we explore how entrepreneurial ecosystems could support the expansion of sustainable ventures and help overcome the barriers and dilemmas for successful sustainability upscaling. The conceptual chapter discusses selected issues in the upscaling of sustainable ventures in the ecosystem context alongside typical barriers and dilemmas in sustainability upscaling. The contribution attempted in this chapter is to build a bridge between the literature strand on upscaling within sustainable innovation and the discussion of supportive ecosystems in the field of entrepreneurship. For example, we address the composition of ecosystem stakeholders and the importance of keeping a shared sustainability orientation in the ecosystem while integrating diverse stakeholders who provide resources for the upscaling process. The discussion in this chapter is based on reviewing recent literature on the upscaling phenomenon in sustainable innovation as well as on entrepreneurial ecosystems and sustainable entrepreneurship. In particular, we suggest that upscaling in entrepreneurial ecosystems may be understood as an open-ended evolutionary process, with ecosystem networks and stakeholder collaboration providing stable spaces for reflexive discourse and learning.