TY - JOUR
T1 - Accelerating the transformation to a sustainable food economy by strengthening the sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem
AU - Forrest, Nigel
AU - Wiek, Arnim
AU - Keeler, Lauren Withycombe
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge funding for this research through the grant Globally and Locally-Sustainable Food-Water-Energy Innovation in Urban Living Labs (GLOCULL) funded by the National Science Foundation (Award No. 1832196) in coordination with the Belmont Forum and the Joint Programming Initiative Urban Europe (Program Sustainable Urbanization Global Initiative—Food-Water-Energy Nexus, SUGI-FWE Nexus), as well as the grant TRANSFORM: Accelerating Sustainability Entrepreneurship Experiments at the Local Scale funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada (Partnership Grant Program; Award No. 50658-10029).
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2023 Forrest, Wiek and Keeler.
PY - 2023/1/12
Y1 - 2023/1/12
N2 - Strengthening the sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem (SEE), particularly its support functions for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), is increasingly seen as an important means of accelerating the transformation to a sustainable economy. Little is known, however, about how to strengthen SEEs. In this article, we evaluate a series of 16 projects intended to develop SEE functioning to accelerate transformation to a sustainable food economy in the Greater Phoenix Area of Arizona. We use an evaluative framework designed around a set of ten SEE support functions to qualitatively assess the baseline state of the SEE, how projects were executed, the effects of these projects, and the overall changes in the SEE that resulted. The findings indicate all but one projects had positive effects on the SEE (nine weak, six medium). In conjunction with other developments, the projects raised the overall SEE performance from the baseline state of two functions being performed at only minimal level, to six functions being performed minimally, and one at a medium level. Insights gained from comparing results across projects suggest tentative guidelines for future practice, which should be useful for SEE stakeholders, including policy makers, economic development agencies, financial institutions, consultants, and educators, interested in strengthening SEEs. Researchers engaging in studies on strengthening SEEs may benefit from the evaluative framework enabling larger cross-case comparisons.
AB - Strengthening the sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem (SEE), particularly its support functions for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), is increasingly seen as an important means of accelerating the transformation to a sustainable economy. Little is known, however, about how to strengthen SEEs. In this article, we evaluate a series of 16 projects intended to develop SEE functioning to accelerate transformation to a sustainable food economy in the Greater Phoenix Area of Arizona. We use an evaluative framework designed around a set of ten SEE support functions to qualitatively assess the baseline state of the SEE, how projects were executed, the effects of these projects, and the overall changes in the SEE that resulted. The findings indicate all but one projects had positive effects on the SEE (nine weak, six medium). In conjunction with other developments, the projects raised the overall SEE performance from the baseline state of two functions being performed at only minimal level, to six functions being performed minimally, and one at a medium level. Insights gained from comparing results across projects suggest tentative guidelines for future practice, which should be useful for SEE stakeholders, including policy makers, economic development agencies, financial institutions, consultants, and educators, interested in strengthening SEEs. Researchers engaging in studies on strengthening SEEs may benefit from the evaluative framework enabling larger cross-case comparisons.
KW - entrepreneurial ecosystem functions
KW - food economy transformation
KW - small business sustainability
KW - sustainable business practices
KW - sustainable economic development
KW - sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems
KW - sustainable food economy
KW - sustainable food systems
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85147101817&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85147101817&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fsufs.2022.970265
DO - 10.3389/fsufs.2022.970265
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85147101817
SN - 2571-581X
VL - 6
JO - Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems
JF - Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems
M1 - 970265
ER -