Professor Cécile Fonrouge, in collaboration with Mireille Lalancette and Mylène Raymond, has examined how entrepreneurs reconcile the entrepreneurial dimension with the common good. Discover the summary of their work in the circular economy.
Summary
The activist-entrepreneur is defined as follows: any individual exploring and exploiting a business opportunity linked to a cause. In this case, the cause aims to limit resource consumption in a circular systemic vision. These entrepreneurs put their organization at the service of the cause to be defended, whether it be within the framework of an association, a non-profit organization, or a business.
Their entrepreneurial b[DR1] [CÉ2] ehaviors differ from other entrepreneurs in that they activate more than others repertoires of actions belonging to the political and activist sphere.
In this research, 5 types of claim-actions particularly used by activist-entrepreneurs have been identified:
- Negotiation and consultation, which promote dialogue and compromise;
- The use of specialized expertise to support a cause;
- Public demonstrations for visible mobilization;
- Judicialization, i.e., the use of legal procedures to influence policies;
- Politicization, aiming for direct involvement in the political domain to induce changes.
Our netnographic observations are justified by the significant use that activist-entrepreneurs make of social media. These analyses indicate that, despite limited financial resources, the activist-entrepreneur can significantly influence norms and practices in the circular economy. Their institutional anchoring allows them to change regulations and standards in favor of their organizational project and therefore their cause. This is particularly important in the case of regulations on the life cycle of resources (beginning, middle, and end) useful to their organization.
By linking claim-actions and the circular economy, a research perspective opens up. It aims to find measurement instruments to assess the degree of awareness of entrepreneurs to circular causes through their actions.
