Bounded Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Uncertainty, Perceptions, and Tensions

ABSTRACT Entrepreneurs experience subjective perceptions of uncertainty and other barriers as they attempt to design their business model. These create boundaries of a cognitive nature that entrepreneurs must navigate. It has been suggested that sustainable entrepreneurship is inherently even more uncertain and complex than traditional entrepreneurship. Through semi‐structured interviews, we study the decision‐making of 22 sustainability‐oriented start‐up entrepreneurs. These interviews reveal the perceived barriers and uncertainties they encounter when developing sustainable business models. We identify a multiplicity of perceived barriers but also uncover inherent tensions and emotional responses associated with sustainable entrepreneurship. Our data highlight the trade‐offs between profit and impact priorities, leading to internalized tensions experienced by entrepreneurs. These tensions, along with other identified barriers, contribute to an understanding of bounded sustainable entrepreneurship. In this context, perceived constraints shape and limit entrepreneurial decision‐making, forcing entrepreneurs to constantly renegotiate their understanding of sustainability. We furthermore uncover a multiplicity of individual entrepreneurial motivations. This leads us to propose a typology of sustainable entrepreneurs' identities based on their approaches to profit‐impact tensions. We define four distinct types of sustainable entrepreneurs: the classical entrepreneur, the serial entrepreneur, the solution entrepreneur, and the mission entrepreneur.