Responding to the greatest challenges? Value creation in ecological startups

Massive problems trigger massive entrepreneurial opportunities. For this reason, environmental issues such as earth system processes that have extended beyond their thresholds, or are approaching such thresholds, constitute interesting opportunities, especially for ecological startups, to establish appropriate businesses that create value to address such environmental issues. Our analysis of 212 ecological startups from the United States and beyond reveals the factors shaping the value creation activities of these firms. In particular, we are able to illustrate that technologically-oriented, socially-oriented, and organizationally-oriented value creation by ecological startups requires different alignments in terms of the environmental issues addressed, the sustainability strategy employed, and the sustainability ambition aspired.