ABSTRACT

This chapter presents categories of sustainability-related entrepreneurship and sustainability innovation based on conceptual and theoretical considerations. Sustainability-improving innovations and sustainability-oriented entrepreneurship need to be linked and analysed jointly to embrace their wider and longer-term impacts. The Bavarian state government initiated the Bavarian cluster programme in 2006 in order to support a directed cluster formation in certain technology domains. The programme focuses on networking and cross-linking of technology-oriented and technology-specific business incubators and technology centres. The economic dimension is part of the sustainability triangle and therefore also an important pillar. But one has to act on the assumption that economic aspects are the main motivation of most innovations and therefore often automatically considered. The company Starfort supplies products such as wood splitters, high-pressure cleaners, glass crucible locks and sofas made of tree trunks. The distinctive feature of the products is that Starfort replaces oil-hydraulic cylinders with water-hydraulic systems.