York, J G (2009) The entrepreneurial creation of public goods: Evidence from the green building and renewable energy industries. PhD thesis, University of Virginia, USA.
Abstract
This three-paper dissertation is motivated by the question Under what conditions and using what process can entrepreneurial action overcome the logic of collective action to provision public goods? I examine this puzzle through three studies, each focused on a specific question: (1) Study 1: How does entrepreneurship influence the adoption of voluntary environmental standards? The process of green building, the use of environmentally friendly construction practices provides a rich context to develop and test a theoretical model for the role of entrepreneurial action in producing public goods. I hypothesize on the relationship between green building project volume, government policies, private activism and entrepreneurial action. A panel was constructed from data on 11,934 projects registered for the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program for the years 2000-07. (2) Study 2: Under what conditions and how will entrepreneurs address environmental issues? I build upon a recent stream of research that has proposed entrepreneurship as a solution to, rather than a cause of, environmental degradation. My theoretical proposition is that under certain conditions entrepreneurs are likely to supplement the efforts of governments, NGOs and existing corporations to achieve environmental sustainability. Utilizing illustrative examples from interviews with the founders of 20 environmentally focused firms, my model illustrates how entrepreneurs (1) address environmental uncertainty, (2) provide innovation and (3) engage in resource allocation to address environmental degradation. (3) Study 3: What is the entrepreneurial process of creating public goods? In this paper I engaged in a grounded theory, qualitative study to build on recent work which relates collective action to institutional change (Hargrave & Van De Ven, 2006a) and technology emergence (von Hippel & von Krogh, 2003). I thematically coded and analyzed interviews with 22 founders and stakeholders in renewable energy startups to develop an entrepreneurship based model of collective action. The model shows how individual entrepreneurs can kick start collective action solutions either by (a) actively creating selective incentives that overcome the tragedy of the commons, and/or (b) effectually creating corridors for self-selected stakeholders, allowing selective incentives to emerge from the process itself.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Sarasvathy, S D |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | emergence; entrepreneurship; environmental design; government; green building; grounded theory; innovation; leadership; renewable energy; resource allocation; standards; sustainability; uncertainty |
| Index terms: | collective action, renewable energy, environmental issue, government policy, startup, grounded theory, entrepreneurship, resource allocation, environmentally friendly, emergence, environmental sustainability, commons, interview, environmental degradation, green building, program, evidence, environmental design, environmental uncertainty, public good, stream, institutional change, qualitative study, dissertation |
| Subjects: | research design and methodology, data collection methods, research dissemination and communication, sustainable design, sustainability and energy, sociology, property law, theoretical framing, software systems, energy systems, resource management, water management, systems engineering, environmental issues, public policy, design practice, communities and social development, business, evaluation and assessment methods, environmental impact, economic analysis, financial risk, health safety and environment |
| Topics: | Legal Issues, Business Strategy, Research Practice, Sustainability, Health and Safety, Cost Management, Governance, Site Management, Digital Applications, Design Practice, Stakeholder Management, Engineering Principles |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here