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Title The sustainable start-up paradox: Predicting the business and climate performance of start-ups
ID_Doc 34393
Authors Leendertse, J; van Rijnsoever, FJ; Eveleens, CP
Title The sustainable start-up paradox: Predicting the business and climate performance of start-ups
Year 2021
Published Business Strategy And The Environment, 30, 2
Abstract Sustainable start-ups introduce new sustainable technologies and business models that facilitate the transition to a carbon neutral economy. To understand how to create viable sustainable start-ups, we study what factors predict their business performance and climate performance (i.e., the ability of the start-up to reduce CO2 equivalent [CO(2)e] emissions) and if these contradict. A critical factor we consider is technology, which is commonly at the root of climate performance, and important for business performance because it influences a start-up's competitive advantage. Using a sample of 197 sustainable start-ups, we find a paradox between business and potential climate performance. Start-ups that exploit hardware technologies have a lower business performance but a higher potential climate performance. Through the use of mediating effects, we show that the sustainable start-up paradox is context specific. Start-ups can partly escape this paradox by focusing on novel and hardware technologies. We discuss implications for theory and practice.
PDF https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/bse.2667
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