In Transition Toward the Ecocentric Entrepreneurship Nexus: How Nature Helps Entrepreneurs Make Ventures More Regenerative Over Time

Abstract

Research on meaning-making has recently enriched our understanding of sustainable entrepreneurship by providing a window into the moral space and the complex reality of entrepreneurs who engage with sustainability issues. This article focuses on meaning-making of one such entrepreneur to explore the role of nature as enabler of sustainable entrepreneurship nexus. It is based on the ethnographic study of the entrepreneur who makes a living out of his pioneering work with forest gardening in Sweden. The transition in meanings that guide the relationship of the entrepreneur with nature, which comes out of the intimate, recursive, and informative exchanges with the ecosystem, makes it possible for nature to come in as a partner and progressively enable the creation of the regenerative venture over time. The emerging regenerative narrative of entrepreneurship stretches beyond the current theories and sets the agenda for ecocentric theorizing about this creative human activity.