Contextual Implications on Sustainable Entrepreneurship : a qualitative study on Food Waste Platforms contribution to reducing food waste in Sweden

Sammanfattning: The global issue of food waste persists, with local digital solutions emerging to address aspects of this problem. Inspired by new economic models like the shared economy, Food waste platforms embody sustainable entrepreneurship. The platforms aspire to deliver social, environmental, and financial values in the process of creating value from waste in redistributing food in a secondary market. However, given the high degree of interactions due to the involvement of many actors in these sustainable business models and the existing gap in studies focusing on these interactions, it is currently unclear how these dynamics can either be an opportunity or a limit for sustainable entrepreneurship. Additionally, the process of navigating these opportunities and the challenges that the context poses is not well-explored. This study combines sustainable entrepreneurship with contextualized entrepreneurship to enhance the understanding of interactions as micro-processes within the entrepreneurial context of business models in the shared economy. Through a multi-case study involving three food waste platforms in Sweden and their partners, key findings reveal that these platforms evolve through co-creation with many actors, facilitated through agency in their operating context. The study emphasizes the importance of context in comprehending sustainable entrepreneurship, while giving insight to what collaborative business models in the shared economy means for the sustainable entrepreneurship in the creation of values.