Micro-foundations of sustainability: entrepreneurial identity and interaction patterns in plant-based food microenterprises

Purpose The paper aims to identify how entrepreneurs’ identities intersect with interaction patterns to facilitate sustainability-driven activities in microenterprises. In addition, it proposes a typology of sustainable entrepreneurs, ranging from Mission-Embedded Activists to Instrumentally Sustainable Entrepreneurs. Design/methodology/approach This paper adopts a qualitative study and presents the results of in-depth interviews conducted with entrepreneurs running 20 plant-based restaurant ventures, serving as a suitable context for examining sustainable entrepreneurship. Findings Sustainability-oriented activities in microenterprises emerge through the interplay between entrepreneurial identity, sustainability-driven identity and interaction patterns. This study develops and implements a four-part typology of sustainable entrepreneurs: Mission-Embedded Activists, Value-Oriented Practitioners, Health-Oriented Problem Solvers and Instrumentally Sustainable Entrepreneurs. Based on this typology, the study demonstrates how different identity configurations translate into distinct approaches toward actor selection, relational openness and the use of close cooperation and pure exchange interactions. The findings further show that interaction patterns are shaped not only by sustainability-driven values but also by resource availability, operational constraints and actors’ local proximity. Originality/value This paper advances understanding of sustainable entrepreneurs in microenterprises by demonstrating how entrepreneurial identity shapes interaction patterns and the enactment of sustainability-oriented activities. It contributes to the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing Group tradition by integrating entrepreneurial identity into the analysis of interaction, thereby extending micro-foundational perspectives in business network research. The study also shows that sustainability-oriented interaction patterns emerge through the interplay among identity, resource constraints and contextual conditions. Finally, it proposes a typology grounded in entrepreneurial identity and sustainability-driven identity, which is subsequently used to explain variation in interaction patterns across sustainable entrepreneurs.