Sustainable entrepreneurship is becoming an increasingly established topic within the entrepreneurship literature. The phenomenon of businesses incorporating social and environmental agendas within their core activities has gathered an increasing academic interest. However, few empirical studies have explored the stage of opportunity identification in the sustainable entrepreneurship process in a more systematic manner, even more so in non-Western contexts such as India. We structure our analysis using a framework situated in the conventional entrepreneurship literature and the literature on National Business Systems (NBS). We conduct a qualitative study to explore the motivations of Indian sustainable entrepreneurs in two sectors: sustainable energy and ethical clothing. While we find that the conventional entrepreneurship based framework provides crucial insights to understand opportunity identification within sustainable entrepreneurship, we also observe a number of features unique to sustainable entrepreneurship in the Indian context—including the personal backgrounds of the participants as well as prioritization of motivational factors. Importantly, we find notable within-country variation in the contextual factors that appear to shape motivational dynamics. In the words of one participant, “there are many Indias” rather than one monolithic approach to sustainable entrepreneurship in India.

中文翻译：

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可持续创业的机会识别：探索印度个人和环境层面因素的相互作用

可持续创业正在成为创业文献中日益成熟的主题。企业将社会和环境议程纳入其核心活动的现象引起了越来越多的学术兴趣。然而，很少有实证研究更系统地探索可持续创业过程中的机会识别阶段，在印度等非西方背景下更是如此。我们使用位于传统创业文献和国家商业系统 (NBS) 文献中的框架来构建我们的分析。我们进行了一项定性研究，以探索印度可持续企业家在两个领域的动机：可持续能源和道德服装。虽然我们发现传统的基于创业的框架为理解可持续创业中的机会识别提供了重要的见解，但我们也观察到了印度背景下可持续创业的许多独特特征——包括参与者的个人背景以及动机因素的优先级. 重要的是，我们发现似乎影响动机动态的背景因素在国内存在显着差异。用一位参与者的话来说，“印度有很多”，而不是印度可持续创业的单一方法。我们还观察到印度背景下可持续创业的许多独特特征——包括参与者的个人背景以及动机因素的优先级。重要的是，我们发现似乎影响动机动态的背景因素在国内存在显着差异。用一位参与者的话来说，“印度有很多”，而不是印度可持续创业的单一方法。我们还观察到印度背景下可持续创业的许多独特特征——包括参与者的个人背景以及动机因素的优先级。重要的是，我们发现似乎影响动机动态的背景因素在国内存在显着差异。用一位参与者的话来说，“印度有很多”，而不是印度可持续创业的单一方法。