Search results

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the emerging literature on sustainable entrepreneurship by studying knowledge, motivation and early stage outcomes of sustainable agricultural entrepreneurship in the context of farmer groups in Burundi.

Quantitative and qualitative data were combined in a multiple-source case study. Data were analyzed using content analysis and basic statistics.

Results revealed that farmer groups’ prior knowledge (PK) on environmental sustainability is better developed than their social and economic sustainability. This is reflected in the environmental sustainability part of the business plans (BPs), which is generally better than the economic and social sustainability parts. Moreover, the top groups on PK identified opportunities directly related to their PK. Pro-activeness of the group was a more determining factor than risk taking and innovativeness. Furthermore, there seemed to be a positive interplay between the groups’ PK, entrepreneurial orientation and knowledge motivation (KM) and the quality of the sustainable BP. In particular, KM seemed to be important, but other variables also explained the quality of the BP, such as level of education.

This research fills a gap in literature because there are few empirical studies on agricultural entrepreneurship that focus on the earliest phase of opportunity recognition, let alone studies that focus on sustainable opportunity recognition in the context of emerging economies such as Burundi. Furthermore, in this research, the authors studied well-known knowledge, motivations and outcomes of sustainable entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of specific internal states (i.e. the set of sustainable values and motivations) that underlie group formation and joint business idea identification of farmer groups in the context of Burundi.

Quantitative and qualitative data were combined in this study. Quantitative data were analyzed using basic statistics. Qualitative data were collected in focus group discussions with farmer groups.

Findings revealed that groups are not just formed on the basis of homophily (same level of internal states) but also on “compensation” and “committed leadership.” Moreover, prior sustainable behavior of members influences sustainability of new group business ideas and the nature (e.g. focus on farming) of that business idea.

As this study was done at an early stage of group formation and does not include group dynamics over a longer period of time, further monitoring of the groups is needed to examine if the observed motivation persists.

Although there is a vast amount of literature on entrepreneurial and top management teams, literature on the (early) mechanisms of entrepreneurial group formation in an emerging economy and rural context is relatively scarce.