ABSTRACT
The second category of key players at the co-ideation level is the category of entrepreneurs. It is the category of people with a strong feeling for the creation and opening of new markets. The eco-innovative and sustainable entrepreneur is, more than other types of professionals, interested in sustainability as a means to generate value and to create markets, turnover and profits. The sustainable entrepreneur interprets sustainability primarily as a value driver; the entrepreneur knows that it can also be a cost driver but chooses to focus on it as a value driver. The sustainable entrepreneur needs to have the same characteristics as the more traditional entrepreneurial type but is distinguished by this belief in sustainability as a source of profit and wealth. Most entrepreneurs are keen on searching and finding new opportunities. They often focus on finding the latent desires of potential customers in markets that do not exist yet but that can emerge in the near future. They tend to look for chances and possibilities and try to develop new ideas for products, services and business models to serve new market segments. Entrepreneurs are aware of the fact that their propositions for new products, services and business processes have to be different from what already exists in the market. They thus try to develop ideas that are unique and, for example, supply or serve customers who are not served by competitors or who are located in neglected geographic areas. They offer products with distinctive features and designs that separate them from competitors in already existing markets. A sustainable entrepreneur needs the traits of any other entrepreneur and in addition concentrates on creating value, on opening markets and on developing new products, services and businesses that have sustainability as the core element that makes them unique and valuable. The sustainable entrepreneur is convinced that the social, sustainable and societal attributes of his or her new business propositions are valuable, that these are worth a price and that they will attract customers. Entrepreneurs are the second element at the co-ideation level of the model of eco-innovation and sustainability management (see Figure 3.1).
