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The study considers how entrepreneurship and its leaders need to adapt to address the sustainability challenge.

It adopts a grounded theory style approach and is based on a case study derived from non-participant observation and secondary data.

The research findings suggest that to address the sustainability challenge requires a new approach to entrepreneurship that is based on systems thinking and the principle of harmony. It suggests the need for less emphasis to be placed on “making as much money as possible” and that there should be broader focus on the development of community entrepreneurship and the creation of civic entrepreneurs.

The research introduces a new approach to entrepreneurship in order to address the sustainability challenge and this has implications for entrepreneurial leadership.

The concept, known as Harmonious Entrepreneurship, requires the integration of the four main approaches to entrepreneurship (economic, eco, humane and social), abandonment of the Friedman (1970) mantra that the responsibility of business is to make as much money as possible and a change in the mindset and competence requirement of the entrepreneurial leader.

The findings imply the need to change the way entrepreneurship is taught and entrepreneurial leaders are trained and developed. Also they suggest the need to focus on community entrepreneurship and the creation of Civic Entrepreneurs.

The article introduces a new, more holistic approach to entrepreneurship in order to address the sustainability challenge. It is based on a study of the vision and achievement of an Islamic entrepreneur and has implications for entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial leadership and entrepreneurship education and training. It will be of interest to entrepreneurship scholars, educationalists and those concerned with the promotion and development of entrepreneurship, as well as all agencies and individuals concerned with the future of the planet and its people. Recommendations are made for further research and verification.

The purpose of this research is to examine the evolution of entrepreneurship, explain the reasons for why it is not contributing significantly to the global sustainability challenge and propose a new approach and business model to better enable it to do so.

The research adopts a grounded theory–style approach based on case study production and analysis using secondary data and, where appropriate, personal observation.

The paper concludes that entrepreneurship has failed to address the sustainability challenge because of its emphasis on “making as much money as possible” and its failure to appreciate that the planet is a system. It concludes that for any solution to be successful it must be based on systems thinking and should integrate or harmonise the traditional, separately applied approaches to entrepreneurship in order to produce a business model with a Triple Bottom Line, whereby Profit, Planet and People are in Harmony.

While the proposed model is based on a real-life case, it needs to be tested in different politico-economic contexts and industry sectors. It has the potential, though, to impact very considerably the traditional thinking on entrepreneurship and its application.

The proposed new approach will have significant implications for entrepreneurship education and training, including the adoption of a stakeholder rather than shareholder approach to management.

Sustainability is arguably the most urgent and critical problem facing contemporary society. The proposed model provides a potential solution to that problem, particularly at the local community level.

The research proposes a new approach to entrepreneurship that breaks with the Friedman (1970) mantra that the purpose of business is to “make as much money as possible”.

This study aims to develop an entrepreneurial business model capable of addressing and preventing the exploitation and inequality that traditionally have resulted from entrepreneurship, particularly in emerging economies.

The research uses systems thinking, the first law of cybernetics, and the principles of harmony to formulate a systemic solution to the problem, which it exemplifies via six purposefully selected short cases drawn from diverse industry sectors and economies.

This paper demonstrates how the conventional model of entrepreneurship, often associated with colonial exploitation and resultant inequalities, can be transformed into a triple bottom line model—harmonious entrepreneurship – that integrates the traditional economic, eco-, humane, and social approaches and creates a synergy where profit, planet, and people are in harmony. The model challenges the profit maximisation/shareholder value doctrine of business success.

Only six cases are presented here, and there is a need for further research in different political-economic contexts and industry sectors. Also, the way entrepreneurship is taught needs to change so that it addresses the sustainability challenge in general and the problem of inequality in particular.

There needs to be a change in the entrepreneurial mindset and the way entrepreneurship is taught and potential entrepreneurs are trained if entrepreneurship is to address the sustainability challenge in general and the problem of inequality in particular.

This is a novel approach to the study of entrepreneurship and its impact on inequality that shows how it can ameliorate and/or prevent inequality, particularly in emerging economies, by adopting a more holistic approach to business success and supplanting “having and needing” with “being and caring”.

This chapter presents the findings of an extracurricular online beta test of a competition between students of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David and the International University of Malaya-Wales. The competition is intended to promote the concept of harmonious entrepreneurship and the creation of student-led harmonious enterprises that address the global sustainability challenge and deliver a triple bottom line in which profit, people, and planet are in harmony. It reveals that extracurricular learning can attract students from disciplines other than business and can educate the participants, both staff and students, not just about harmonious entrepreneurship but also how to identify and launch an innovative harmonious enterprise that addresses a sustainability challenge. The test identifies how the competition may be improved prior to its global launch and makes recommendations for students, educators, mentors, providers, and universities as to how it might best be implemented. Once revised and launched the competition will be further tested to better understand how extracurricular learning can help advance the delivery of both entrepreneurship and sustainability education in universities and colleges around the globe.

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.

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.