The Leopard’s Spots Are Changing: An Evolutionary Approach to Ecological Sustainability¹

Abstract

Although ethical custom has long recognized man’s responsibility to the environment, the contribution of traditional economic entrepreneurship to the sustainability challenge has been limited. Indeed, it can be shown to have had a negative impact at times and although new business models have been introduced, addressing environmental, humane and social issues, questions have been raised about whether entrepreneurship and sustainability are compatible. Accordingly, this chapter proposes a new business model that integrates or harmonizes these four more traditional entrepreneurship models currently applied independently. The model is founded on general systems thinking and the principle of harmony. It is based on a case study of real-life commercial startup operation, SEKEM Holding in Egypt. The case, which is based on secondary data and non-participant observation, is discussed in detail as is the resultant proposed Harmonious Entrepreneurship model. A definition is provided together with three further case examples that exemplify and demonstrate the model in different geographical and sectoral contexts. Each is based on a “bleeding edge,” innovative technological solution to the problem being addressed and the study concludes that:

• for entrepreneurship to address the sustainability challenge successfully a new entrepreneurship paradigm is needed that abandons the Friedman doctrine of being about making as much money as possible;

• the paradigm should incorporate systems thinking and operate both ethically and in accordance with the harmony principle, ensuring that profit, people and planet are harmonized; and

• the model can be implemented simultaneously, and not incrementally as previous research has suggested.

Citation

Kirby, D.A., El-Kaffass, I. and Healey-Benson, F. (2023), "The Leopard’s Spots Are Changing: An Evolutionary Approach to Ecological Sustainability¹", Ferreira, J.J. and Murphy, P.J. (Ed.) Bleeding-Edge Entrepreneurship: Digitalization, Blockchains, Space, the Ocean, and Artificial Intelligence (Contemporary Issues in Entrepreneurship Research, Vol. 16), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 31-49. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2040-724620230000016004