Browsing by Subject "Sustainable development"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Land property, tenure security and credit access: a historical perspective of change processes in China
(2006) Jia, Xiangping; Piotrowski, Stephan
The North China Plain is the country?s granary: most of wheat and maize is supplied by this region in the northeast of China. Intensity of agricultural production has risen sharply in the last decades and the negative environmental effects like water scarcity, salinization and nitrate contamination have been widely acknowledged. In the wake of the country?s rapid economic development it becomes at the same time more and more urgent to narrow the gap between the well-being of the urban and rural population. In order to better understand the paths that lead to this present dilemma, this paper provides a historical overview of the development of the land and water markets and the rural financial system. It highlights the linkages and reciprocal restraints between these three sectors and gives some conclusions and policy recommendations on how to proceed in order to further a more sustainable development in the North China Plain. Apart from literature review, data from an original farm household survey, conducted by the authors, is used to substantiate the arguments put forth in this paper.
Ökokaufhaus - Konzept der Zukunft? Empirische Analyse der Effekte eines innovativen Unternehmenskonzept auf Umwelt und Gesellschaft
(2006) Gebhardt, Beate; Schulz, Werner F.
Sustainable production and management in companies and sustainable consumption on the part of the consumers are the objectives, which are defined as trend-setting. However, it is not yet clear what role trade may play, as it is sometimes designated as the motor, sometimes the inhibitor of sustained development. With the shopping mall ?Ökokaufhaus Rommelmühle? in Bietigheim-Bissingen, an idealistically motivated eco-preneur wants to implement and realize different objectives of sustainable development in compagny concept. It opened in the autumn 1998. The innovative project incorporates the ecological shopping mall with nearly 6,000 m2 sales area, together with approx. 100 people who live in the old main building and in new, ecologically built houses. It is intended as a concept for the future, from which the economy, environment and society profit equally. The central question of this work is: can a company innovation in trade such as the ecological shopping mall actually promote steps towards sustainability? Apart from efficiency and consistency strategies, sufficiency strategies must also be successfully implemented. For this purpose the "Ökokaufhaus Rommelmühle" and its surrounding field is considered in the years 1998 to 2002 on the basis of various empirical investigations. The analyses of all aspects the Rommelmühle, as well as a further survey of other existing and planned ecological shopping malls in Germany, highlight the situation of an innovative trading venture on the eco-market. The results are summarized in the following four theses. Thesis 1: The basic idea of the eco-shopping mall is trend-setting. The idea of an ecologically influential and sustainably organised trading venture is still regarded as very positive. Today consumers demand more social and ecological responsibility from companies. In Germany people´s sense of responsibility remains high beyond the ecological dimension. Companies are slowly beginning to be sensitised. Despite the failure of the concept, the basic idea of an ecological shopping mall still meets with great enthusiasm. The idea of ecologically acting and the life-style of sustainably organised trade companies remains firm in people?s minds. This is a first and in a long-term view a central result of this work. Thesis 2: Eco-shopping malls enable a hybrid sustainable development Also in an ecologically motivated pioneering company the basis for corporate continuity is formed by the economic dimension. Thus the chances of changing ecologically and socially relevant elements in corporate operations depend on economic affordability. At present an ecological shopping mall in its realized or planned form is economically unsuccessful or at least endangered in its economic survival. If it can assert itself on the market, it acts as an innovative ?David? in the eco-niche. Eco-efficient basic conditions (like structure of buildings) and infrastructural offers (supply of goods) as typical ecological innovations in the eco-shopping mall substantially improve the chance of more sustainable production and consumption patterns. However, the ecological shopping mall sets as a potential supporter of sufficiency strategies provides no significant impetus. Even in planning, in the eco-shopping mall social components were subordinate to ecological aspects and in business a community-oriented approach was completely thwarted. In addition, the ecological shopping mall is an expensive supply installation and like the whole eco- market it is visited particularly by more highly educated consumers and by the older generation. Thesis 3: The establishment of eco-shopping malls is a matter of time. Particularly for economic reasons, the concept of an ecological shopping mall has no future ? at least in the short term. The demand for ecologically high-quality products is limited except with regard to organic food. The offer of different ecological branches of trade in one house hardly causes spill-over effects. However, in view of the production in industries and in the reflections and way of consuming of society at large in the long-term the beginning changes promise framework conditions, which could result in the success of eco-shopping malls in the future. Today in the ecological industries different lines of success in diffusion processes can still be observed. For example, the trade with eco-clothing has remained in the eco-niche, stigmatised since the eighties. And also the ecological building industry so far has not been able to develop remarkable movement, despite legally established standards of thermal insulation. Organic food alone, the oldest ecological commercial sector, is already on an economical successful course and enjoys increasing social acceptance. Historical experience shows: also the great department stores of the 19th Century developed over decades from offering a single branch of trade to a full range of products. Thesis 4: Ecological shopping mall is a model and chance for advancement in the trade. In the future the design and structure of an ecological shopping mall will be adapted to the things the economy will offer and the requirements of society. The ecological shopping mall of the future will not have much in common with the eco-mall Rommelmühle - analysed as a general case study. But the aim of this innovative idea will connect the past and the future: to place things again in a comprehensive context, to unite sustainable production/management and sustainable consumption, to see society and the environment as an interconnected whole. These expectations of people today will form the basis for how the companys will act tomorrow.
Sustainable entrepreneurship and the bioeconomy transition
(2023) Hinderer, Sebastian; Kuckertz, Andreas
Transgressing planetary boundaries endangers the safe operating space for humanity. Thus, a transition of socioeconomic systems toward sustainable development is needed. Prior research elevated the role of sustainable entrepreneurship (SE) in the transition process toward sustainable development in general and the bioeconomy in specific. Bioeconomy strategies worldwide acknowledge the importance of entrepreneurship for the transition process. There is consensus in research that entrepreneurs are needed to implement the vision of a bioeconomy as defined in these strategies. However, it remains unclear how opportunities for entrepreneurial activity in the bioeconomy come into existence and how entrepreneurs contribute to the bioeconomy transition by acting on the provided opportunities. Thus, this dissertation aims to shed light on the interface of SE and the bioeconomy, specifically by investigating the interplay between SE and the bioeconomy transition in light of planetary boundaries and the role of entrepreneurs within the transition. The four empirical studies included in this dissertation take different perspectives on the interface of SE and the bioeconomy and thus contribute different insights to the overall picture drawn in this dissertation. For instance, Study 1 examines a transition pathway to a sustainable bioeconomy by involving an international expert sample in a Delphi survey and subsequent cross-impact analysis. Study 1 presents a list of events necessary to achieve the transition ranked by the experts to reflect their urgency. The cross-impact analysis facilitates combining the most urgent events to create an integrated model of the transition to a sustainable bioeconomy. The findings suggest that rather than bioeconomy strategies, technological progress leveraged by innovative bioeconomy startups and investments currently constitute the main bottleneck hindering a transition to a bioeconomy. Study 2 zooms into the level of new bioeconomy ventures. Based on interviews with ten bioeconomy entrepreneurs from six European countries, it investigates how entrepreneurial opportunities emerge in the bioeconomy context and what competencies entrepreneurs need to act on them. Conceptualizing the bioeconomy transition as an external enabler for SE, Study 2 opens new avenues for research on sustainable development and innovation policy. Furthermore, Study 2 shows that new venture creation in the bioeconomy requires unique knowledge and specific competencies. Study 3 asks how to scale sustainable new ventures and puts it in the context of the ongoing de-growth debate. In recent years the de-growth paradigm has gained popularity in the sustainability discourse. Questioning the absolute decoupling of economic growth from environmental degradation, de-growth proponents suggest downscaling production and consumption to reduce resource extraction and energy consumption. Applying latent class analysis to reveal de-growth attitudes among 393 surveyed entrepreneurs and subsequent regression analysis, Study 3 answers how de-growth attitudes among (sustainable) entrepreneurs are associated with their decision-making on scaling strategies for their ventures. Furthermore, it shows that the development level of the economy an entrepreneur is active in is an essential factor in the decision-making on scaling strategies. Study 4 investigates how sustainable new ventures gain legitimacy to acquire the necessary resources to grow. Previous research suggested being distinctive yet understandable as key to legitimacy for new ventures. However, Study 4 describes complex entrepreneurial identities, i.e., unconventional combinations of entrepreneurial identity claims from the founder and venture levels, as an additional source of legitimacy that benefits only sustainable new ventures but not conventional ones. Since sustainable startups aim to tackle complex problems, external audiences expect them to be different from established conventions of the status quo. An analysis of 15,116 crowdfunding campaigns and their creators’ user profiles via topic modeling and subsequent regression analysis supports this argumentation. The findings show that sustainable ventures with complex – or even odd – entrepreneurial identities receive more support from crowdfunders, while conventional ventures do not. Overall, this dissertation conceptualizes a bi-directional and potentially reinforcing relationship between SE and the bioeconomy transition by building on extant literature and collecting and analyzing new data in four empirical studies. Moreover, it highlights the role of entrepreneurs who need unique knowledge and specific competencies and differ significantly from conventional entrepreneurs in their behavior and entrepreneurial identity. Finally, this dissertation discusses how policy and societal norms can foster productive entrepreneurship that is innovative and sustainable within planetary boundaries.