Reconciling entrepreneurship with imminent sustainability challenges

While economic growth is an essential part of the business narrative, it is of particular salience in the context of new startup companies. For many entrepreneurs, providers of venture capital, and business analysts, companies that during their first years of existence experience fast and sustained growth serve as highly desirable role models. Such growth ambitions are nevertheless not neutral in the face of imminent sustainability challenges, specifically those related to environmental and social impact and the imperative of maintaining human and business activity within planetary boundaries.

To probe the inherent complexities and goal conflicts associated with company growth, we are conducting a set of interviews with founders of companies that are in the early to mid-stages of their development. The complexities and goal conflicts we are particularly interested in include the elusive concept of optimizing economic, environmental, and social aspects of developing new ventures, how aspirations to achieve and sustain new venture growth can be reconciled with a scale of business activity that considers and respects the earth’s carrying capacity, and the possibility of ignoring growth in contexts where competitors make concerted efforts to build dominant positions in the marketplace.