What it takes to make it: profile and characteristics of DIY bio laboratory founders

© 2021 The Author(s). As important antecedents of the emerging DIY laboratory movement, the aspects of profiles and characteristics of those pioneers who establish DIY laboratories have remained under-researched in extant literature. In order to address this issue and explore common profiles and characteristics of DIY laboratory founders, by employing content analysis, this paper analyses secondary data on 23 founders/co-founders of eight DIY bio laboratories that are publicly available (DIYbio.org). The results reveal that a common profile of a DIY bio laboratory founder is someone most likely to be highly educated (often times PhD), with experience and expertise in the field of science and has strong ideological beliefs. Additionally, the founders/co-founders have characteristics of entrepreneurship, research, ideology and community that strongly advocate for open source sharing of scientific information and for the democratisation of science

Bold ambition, blunted agency? : Examining top management perspectives on a circular economy transition in Finland

The circular economy is proposed as a company-driven means to further sustainability transitions. Top managers have a critical role in fostering the circular economy as they are responsible for shaping and implementing a company's sustainability strategy and performance. In this paper, we adopt a microfoundations perspective to enhance our understanding of the influence of top managers as agents of the sustainability transition to the circular economy. In a qualitative research study, we interviewed 34 top managers of Finnish companies that are actively pursuing the circular economy. The main implication of our study is in exploring the role of top managers, as they engage in actively structuring a new, circular regime. To this end, our paper provides salient insights into the prevailing debate on the structure-agency question in the sustainability transitions literature. We find that power is a key characteristic of how top managers exercise their agency. Our findings imply that while top managers are perceived as the most powerful members of a company, their agency is often limited by structural constraints on multiple levels within their companies, in the industry, and in the broader regime. Furthermore, we find that top managers' power and agency towards the transition is heavily dependent on their abilities to secure business profitability.peerReviewe

Microentrepreneurs as socially responsible leaders

Abstract Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to the voluntary integration of social and environmental concerns into companies’ operations. This qualitative case study investigates microentrepreneurs’ values and business activities related to CSR, particularly the elements of social responsibility (SR) via the responsible leadership (RL) approach. We investigate how entrepreneurs perceive the concept of SR, how SR is related to values and through which leadership activities they plan to implement SR. The case is a CSR training programme with 30 Finnish microentrepreneurs as attendants. The results show that entrepreneurs perceive SR on two levels: philosophical and practice-oriented levels. At the philosophical level, RL is being truthful to one’s own values and taking a long-term, holistic view, and the practical SR includes customer focus, staff equality, or community and network activity. Being true to one’s personal values and having a holistic long-term view of SR are the ground-building elements guiding leadership decisions in microenterprises. The practical level of RL is not limited to the microenterprise but, rather, extends to, for example, customers and business partners. The theoretical contribution to the RL literature is that the groundwork for SR in microenterprises is based on strategically sustainable businesses that are in line with entrepreneurs’ values but also simultaneously pursue a greater, more long-term purpose than a short-term profit-seeking. This study adds to the RL literature, indicating that, regardless of their owner-centricity and the focus on practically relevant leadership activities in the here and now, microenterprises pursue larger impacts on the community by adopting a holistic, future-oriented view. Although microenterprises are owner-centric and individual motivations play a significant role in RL, this study shows that, in socially and economically sustainable microenterprises, entrepreneurs’ personal values are integrated with those of the customers

Vastuullisuudesta kilpailuetua:opas pienyritykselle vastuullisuussuunnitelman laatimiseen

Alkusanat Vastuullisuus on usein sisäänrakennettuna suomalaisen pienyrityksen yrityskulttuuriin, vaikka sitä ei olisi tietoisesti pohdittukaan. Suomalaiset yritykset toimivat tyypillisesti rehellisesti, vilpittömästi, kunniallisesti ja avoimesti, jolloin vastuullisuus on jo hyvällä pohjalla. Vastuullinen yritys on myös haluttu työnantajana ja yhteistyökumppanina. Asiakkaan arvostaminen on keskeistä vastuullisen yrityksen toiminnalle. Vastuullisuus ei välttämättä tarkoita isoja vastuullisuusohjelmia vaan käytännön toiminta arjessa riittää. Taloudellisella tasolla vastuullisuutta on mm. kannattava yritystoiminta, sosiaalista vastuullisuutta on mm. henkilöstön hyvinvoinnista huolehtiminen. Sosiaalinen vastuullisuus tarkoittaa myös toimintaa paikallisyhteisön edistämiseksi, työyhteisön ja työolojen kehittämistä sekä ihmisarvon kunnioittamista yrityksen kaikissa toiminnoissa. Tämä opas on suunnattu pien- ja mikroyrityksille. Oppaaseen on koottu mikroyrittäjän vastuullisuusvalmennuksessa käytettyä materiaalia ja valmennuksissa hyödynnettyjä työkaluja. Tarkoituksena on, että saat laadittua yrityksellesi vastuullisuuden kehittämissuunnitelman, ViVa Road Mapin. Opas on tuotettu osana ViVa – Vihreä vastuullisuus mikroyrityksissä -hanketta, jonka vastuullisuusvalmennus on auttanut pieniä ja mikroyrityksiä suunnitelmalliseen vastuullisuuteen ja sitä kautta kilpailuedun lisäämiseen Pohjois-Pohjanmaalla vuosina 2021–2023