Sustainable entrepreneurship: a generational approach in terms of entrepreneurial capabilities[L’entrepreneuriat soutenable : une approche générationnelle en termes de capabilités entrepreneuriales]

The 1st part leans on a theoretical corpus whose main reference is the "effectual entrepreneur" of Saras Sarasvathy (2008) in so far as, in this model, the role of the entrepreneur's personal capabilities as leverages of his/her capacity to act is stressed. An enlarged version of the effectual entrepreneur is outlined so as to include the entrepreneurial capabilities depending on contextual factors and taking into account the fact that sustainable entrepreneurship is generally considered as "place-based". In the 2nd part, the data provided by a large field work are commented, knowing that its main purpose was to bring out the overall characteristics of three different generations' entrepreneurial profile. The analysis puts to light a "generational effect" in terms of entrepreneurial capabilities and leads to distinguish three significant groups of entrepreneurs: their attending to sustainability is more or less asserted and their participation terms are more or less straight.