Scaling sustainability-oriented ventures: Using the Six-S-Framework in entrepreneurship education

Entrepreneurship education has long neglected the critical scaling phase, despite its central role in enabling ventures to transition from promising ideas to impactful, sustainable solutions. This workshop addresses the challenge by focusing on sustainability-oriented ventures confronting global issues such as climate change, resource depletion, and social inequality. These ventures often face additional scaling challenges compared to non-sustainability-oriented ventures. By introducing Tom Eisenmann's Six-S Framework— encompassing Scope, Speed, Series X, Structure, Shared Values, and Staff—participants are provided with a structured yet adaptable tool to demystify the complexities of scaling. The session opens with a concise definition of scaling and an overview of the framework, followed by the presentation of a real-life sustainability-oriented venture. Through collaborative group tasks, educators will apply the framework to concrete scaling challenges, co-creating ideas, identifying obstacles, and building a support network. A collective discussion and reflective session further explore the pedagogical benefits and practical hurdles of incorporating scaling, real-world cases, and the Six-S Framework into entrepreneurship curricula.