Motivational drivers of South African ecopreneurs

Abstract

Ecopreneurs are those entrepreneurs who sell green services or products, for profit. The research on this sub-category of entrepreneurship is still in its infancy, especially in South Africa. The focus of this study is to undertake research to understand the motivational drivers of ecopreneurs, why they decide to start and run their green businesses, and if and how that may differ from the general population of entrepreneurs. The findings in this research report will be compared to the existing body of literature on ecopreneurial motivations outside of South Africa.This research project comprises ten in-depth interviews with ecopreneurs in South Africa. Ecopreneurs were interviewed face-to-face, in an unstructured format. Secondary sources of data such as printed marketing material and company web sites were also collected.The research found that ecopreneurs in South Africa were motivated by ten factors, in order of prevalence: passion and meaning; identifying a gap in the market; values; money; disruption and change; independence; family-related motivators; dealing with pleasant people; vision and the least prevalent, work-related motivators. Ecopreneurs and entrepreneurs appear to have quite similar motivations, aside from their passion and values. Their economic motivations were found to be secondary to other motivations like passion and values.There was a lack in diversity in the sample and the country context of South Africa influences the results.This is the first sample of ecopreneurs of its kind in South Africa and given the gaps in the literature, especially in South Africa, a total of ten suggestions were made for future research.