Sustainable entrepreneurship shaped by design thinking

Conventionally, opportunity recognition has been the main factor characterising entrepreneurship. This opportunity refers to a gap or a missing link between what people need/want and what is provided to them. Thus, this gap... [ view full abstract ]

Conventionally, opportunity recognition has been the main factor characterising entrepreneurship. This opportunity refers to a gap or a missing link between what people need/want and what is provided to them. Thus, this gap constitutes an opportunity for economic exploitation. This rationale has enabled the emergence of ventures that profit from and reproduce a consumerist and unsustainable society. In this paper we explore to what extent an opportunity-recognition process led by empathy (rather than by economic purposes) alters the outcome of such process. In order to do so, we have conducted our research in two pre-incubator programmes that aim at developing empathy at the first stage of the pre-incubation process. One programme was run in The Netherlands, with the objective to support refugees to rebuild their lives by providing them with the tools and training they need to start their own enterprise. The other programme was run in Colombia, with the objective to support community leaders to create solutions for their own local needs. Both programmes attempt to develop empathy using design thinking as the main tool. Design thinking is characterised by two main elements. First, iteration between the ‘problem and solution space’. Second, an ideation process based on ‘divergence and convergence’. Throughout these iterative processes, participants are encouraged to develop and practise empathy. We have conducted interviews to the programmes’ participants in order to understand in which ways the development of empathy affected the ideation process and the business model they finally developed. Our findings suggest that a strong emphasis on developing empathy (1) transforms conventional business ideas and models into more sustainable ones; (2) promotes business models based on product-service systems, which are believed to be good means for achieving competitiveness and sustainability simultaneously (Tukker, 2004); (3) brings about more sensitive entrepreneurs to the social and environmental challenges their communities face; (4) increases awareness of the role businesses play in developing a more sustainable society.

Keywords: sustainable entrepreneurship; design thinking; empathy; pre-incubation