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État de publication: publié
Nom de la revue: Journal of Business Venturing
Volume: 41
Numéro: 5
URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0883902626000492
Résumé: Research on sustainable entrepreneurship shows that personal values shape sustainable entrepreneurial intentions and opportunity evaluation, yet offers limited insight into how such values are enacted in early-stage decision-making. To address this gap, we draw on values work theory and pragmatic axiology to study how entrepreneurs mobilize personal values in concrete decision episodes during the early development of sustainable ventures. Using event-based interviews with 15 sustainability-oriented entrepreneurs, we analyzed 165 decision episodes across core venture domains. Findings show that entrepreneurs justify their decisions through a broad range of values organized into higher-order value registers. Comparison across the dataset reveals seven recurrent, domain-specific configurations of value registers, each associated with a distinct decision challenge: benchmark, proof, embodiment, embeddedness, cohesion, legitimacy, and market. Across these challenges, entrepreneurs articulate aspirational and operational value orientations in ways that make decisions both justifiable and viable. With its focus on individual entrepreneurs at the formative stage of venture development, this article makes four contributions. First, it provides an empirically grounded account of personal values in action in the early development of sustainable ventures. Second, it extends values work theory by showing how values work unfolds within the evaluative structure of early-stage decision-making through the articulation of aspirational and operational value orientations. Third, it develops a structured method for analyzing value mobilization in entrepreneurial decision episodes. Fourth, it offers entrepreneurs and ecosystem actors a non-normative guide for navigating challenges in sustainable venture development. Future research could extend this lens to later stages and other venturing settings.
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