Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Institutional profile and cross-country comparison Denmark & US

Sustainable entrepreneurship is a relatively new subject. The problem is that not much is known about the occurrence of sustainable entrepreneurship in different economic systems. Furthermore, not much is known about the correct type of policy towards sustainable entrepreneurship. In this research, first, an overview of literature on sustainable entrepreneurship is given. This part discusses sources of opportunity and challenges for the sustainable entrepreneur. Second, an institutional profile of Denmark and the US is made. The different economic systems and government policy of these countries indicate the difference between a liberal market economy and a coordinated market economy. The last part explores data from survey carried out by the European Commission, Flash Eurobarometer 342: “SMEs, resource efficiency and green markets.” The goal of this research is to explore whether the occurrence of sustainable entrepreneurship is higher in a liberal market economy than in a coordinated market economy. The source of opportunity, due to the liberal market economy is expected to be higher in the US. This is because of a larger amount of market failure that can be addressed by the sustainable entrepreneur. Another goal is to find out the differences in the policy desired by entrepreneurs in these different market economies. It is expected that in a liberal market economy, the sustainable entrepreneurs, have different desires of types of support than in a coordinated market economy. This is because of the different types of policy carried out in these economies. This goal looks more at the challenges for the sustainable entrepreneur. For both goals, the data from the survey is used to explore whether there are indications of institutional differences between the countries that may be related to the occurrence of sustainable entrepreneurship. The main findings show that there is no indication of more sustainable entrepreneurship in the US. Sustainable entrepreneurship is operationalized as: a company has to have a minimum annual turnover of 51% of green products or services. Data has shown that Denmark has a higher rate of sustainable entrepreneurship. The challenges for the entrepreneur like resource availability and assistance seem to outweigh the sources of opportunity. The active policy measurers and the very low uncertainty rate, in Denmark, have probably lowered the barrier for the sustainable entrepreneur. Furthermore the data shows that ‘demand from customers’ is the most important reason to offer green products or services. Here lies a challenge for policy makers. The results for differences in desired policy show, that US companies need more financial support and help with identifying potential markets or customers for green products or services than Denmark. It can be noted that Danish companies don’t often receive support from public or private parties, for offering green products or services.