Exploring entrepreneurial processes in new markets : towards sustainable food systems

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to explore how entrepreneurial processes work in the creation and development of new markets. New markets are business environments in an early stage of formation and offer an opportunity to change patterns of consumption and production. This makes new markets an interesting subject in society’s quest towards more sustainable food systems. Therefore, we need to better understand the processes through which new markets are created and developed. This thesis studied the emergence of the Swedish meal-kit market, which was initiated to target sustainable values. The empirical material was gathered through a qualitative longitudinal study that was conducted between 2010 and 2018 and the main source of empirical material was interviews with the founders and managers of ten firms. The analysis was performed in a process that iterated between empirics and theory. The thesis contributes to an understanding of the micro-processes involved within and between founders, firms and markets, as new markets are created and developed. The processes are explained as embeddedness, identity work and branding, which all capture the interactions with context. It is argued that to better understand why and how entrepreneurship happens, we need to balance the myopic focus on economic values and also focus on other entrepreneurial outcomes than a firm’s success. Thus, the thesis call for more contextualized perspectives of entrepreneurship in order to understand sustainable change in new markets

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