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This paper aims to examine the experiences of an ecopreneurial venture that was operating before, during and after the 2010-2011 series of earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand. The aim is to elucidate on the tension existing between an ecopreneur’s personal green values/ethics and his need to be resilient and do what was necessary to ensure his business’s survival, which was operating before, during and after an extreme event – the 2010-2011 series of earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand.

The data are gathered from a longitudinal case study of Just Organic Ltd (an organic fruit and vegetable delivery service) over a five-year period which covers time before and after the earthquakes. Data were gathered via two in-depth face-to-face interviews with the ecopreneur, along with a number of email and telephone follow-ups.

Findings indicate that an extreme event such as an earthquake will inhibit the green values of an ecopreneur as the ecopreneur works to ensure business survival. To continue to operate successfully, the ecopreneur developed a resilient and hardy nature and adapted operational processes to run in a more entrepreneurial fashion. It would seem that holding firmly to green values irrespective of a changed business environment is detrimental to business viability and survivability. The ecopreneur bounced forward, rather than bouncing back from the disaster.

The implications for research, policy makers and ecopreneurs and entrepreneurs in general are discussed. There are lessons to be learned from the experiences of the ecopreneur who is operating Just Organic Limited.

This paper is one of the few that has examined the impact the Christchurch earthquakes had on an existing eco-business. The longitudinal data enable a unique insight into the operational aspects of an eco-business before and after a series of earthquakes.

Women and men business owners are often thought to have different success criteria for their businesses, but there is little empirical research to support this. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nature of self-defined success factors, and to compare women and men’s success criteria.

This study surveyed 216 New Zealand business owners’ (78 women, 138 men) self-perceived success criteria for their businesses. Results are based primarily on an open-ended question on their interpretation of what success means to them. In total, 30 main categories of success factors were identified, and the four main factors analyzed in depth.

The four most frequently occurring success factors were financial success, personal satisfaction, work-life/work-family balance, and satisfied stakeholders. Women and men business owners described very similar success criteria, which were balanced across financial success and personal and relationship factors. No statistically significant gender differences were found in the incidence of these success factors, suggesting a movement of male business owners to a more holistic view of business success that incorporates financial success, alongside personal and relationship aspects.

Offers implications for researchers, policy makers, and practitioners. Highlights the need to be careful when designing research studies in multi-faceted areas such as business success, and also in gender comparative studies.

Uses self-perceived success criteria to assess gender differences.

Ecopreneurs are those entrepreneurs who start for‐profit businesses with strong underlying green values and who sell green products or services. This is an emerging field where research is still in its infancy. Research has been called for to understand the factors that motivate these ecopreneurs to start businesses – and that is the focus of this study. The aim of this paper is to compare the findings with results of extant literature on entrepreneurial motivations.

This study comprises 14 in‐depth case studies of ecopreneurial companies in New Zealand in 2008. Participants were interviewed in a face‐to‐face, semi‐structured format. In total, 88 secondary sources such as media reports, industry statistics, and information from company web sites were also collected.

Ecopreneurs were motivated by five factors: their green values; earning a living; passion; being their own boss; and seeing a gap in the market. Ecopreneurs appear to have quite similar motivations to entrepreneurs in general, aside from their green motivations. They had lower level financial motivations than have been found in prior research on entrepreneurs. The ecopreneurs were primarily pulled into entrepreneurship, which bodes well for their ongoing success. The paper presents a number of contributions to both the ecopreneurship and entrepreneurship literatures.

The small sample is a potential limitation and the country context may also influence the findings.

This is one of the largest samples of ecopreneurs to date. Given the emerging nature of the field of ecopreneurship, this study's conclusions require further research and testing. A total of 11 such suggestions for future research are made.

Entrepreneurial motivations are often defined as fitting into “push” or “pull” categories. To date, research has focused on the factors motivating men and women separately. What is missing from this research is an analysis of the comparative differences in these motivators of men and women, and an exploration of what this means in terms of push‐pull theory. This paper aims to contribute by applying the existing theory on push and pull factors; and using a gender comparative approach to explore the nature of potential gender differences within entrepreneurial motivations.

This exploratory study uses a gender comparative approach in semi‐structured, face‐to‐face interviews with 75 entrepreneurs (28 women and 47 men).

Findings suggest that both women and men appeared similarly motivated by a combination of push and pull factors. Three gender differences were found in the incidence of motivations: women were more influenced by a desire for independence; women considered their children as motivators more so than did men; men were influenced more by job dissatisfaction than were women. The discussion focuses on analysing the nature of gender differences rather than merely their incidence.

A number of further research directions and questions are posed as a way of extending the knowledge in this area. Implications for managers and entrepreneurs are also presented.

Contributes to push‐pull theory by offering a gender comparative approach to advance theory.

Studies have concluded that men tend to have higher self‐confidence than women and that this affects their entrepreneurial intentions. However, little is known about how self‐confidence affects entrepreneurs in their start‐up decision, and even less is understood about how it affects entrepreneurs' decisions and actions in their ongoing business. The purpose of this paper is to meet these two objectives by using a gender comparative approach.

A total of 50 entrepreneurs (25 women and 25 men) in New Zealand were interviewed in a semi‐structured format.

Women exhibit a lack of self‐confidence in their own abilities as entrepreneurs compared to men. This finding parallels results of prior research. Once in an established business, women relate to entrepreneurship less than men and do not feel comfortable calling themselves entrepreneurs. For some women, entrepreneurial self‐confidence grew over their time in business. For other women, it appears to continue to act as a constraint – affecting their ability to access finance and curtailing their growth aspirations.

In total, 50 entrepreneurs were studied, and further research could be done to understand the impact of self‐confidence for larger samples of entrepreneurs.

The qualitative nature of the study contributes to the limited understanding of how entrepreneurial self‐confidence affects both the start‐up decision and sustained entrepreneurship, but more research required. A key outcome of this paper is that it provides directions for further research to more fully understand this phenomenon. It also presents a number of policy suggestions.

The family has the potential to be a breeding ground for entrepreneurs and may be key place where the entrepreneurial spirit is ignited. However, to date there has been little empirical research on how parents may influence their children's subsequent decision to start a new venture.

This study adopts a qualitative approach to investigate, via in‐depth semi‐structured interviews, the experiences of 50 entrepreneurs (25 men and 25 women).

Parents influenced participants' decision to create a new venture in a number of ways and two key gender differences were noted in this parental influence. The first related to how the participants were influenced differently by their mothers and fathers, with fathers playing the primary role in the new venture creation decision. The second was differences between how the women and men participants described the ways they were influenced by their parents. Many women entrepreneurs looked to their parents for advice, support and encouragement, while some men desired independence from their parents (primarily fathers) or were trying to compete with them.

Limitations exist due to the sample size and the complexity of motivations for starting a new venture. This study should be followed by more extensive research, addressing the further research questions and directions that are posed.

This empirical study contributes to the literature by enhancing our limited understanding of how parents influence the decision to start a new venture.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether entrepreneurs realised their growth aspirations for their service sector businesses after five years. Growth in sales turnover and employee numbers is explored, as well as entrepreneurs' perspectives of how they achieved growth (or why they did not). There have been few examples of longitudinal research which compares entrepreneurs' growth aspirations with actual growth, and fewer still that focus on service businesses.

Twenty‐six entrepreneurs are interviewed in New Zealand in 2001 and re‐interviewed in 2006. Face‐to‐face interviews are used in the first instance, and the follow‐up interview is conducted by telephone.

Twenty‐one entrepreneurs aspired growth in terms of either sales or employees (most aspired growth in both). The majority achieved growth in sales through having a good reputation, attention to customer service, diversification and employing good staff. Fewer entrepreneurs achieved their aspired growth in employee numbers, due to difficulties in employing and managing staff, skill shortages and a tight labour market. Findings support prior research that show if an entrepreneur chooses to grow his or her business it is likely that growth will actually occur.

This qualitative sample of 26 entrepreneurs is relatively small, but allows for an in‐depth look at the growth process. Implications for policy makers are presented.

The findings of this paper contribute to the growth aspirations' literature, and narrow the focus to service sector firms particularly. The qualitative approach also provides a new lens through which to understand more about the growth process from the entrepreneurs' perspective.