To grow or not to grow? Entrepreneurship and sustainable development

SUMMARY

Growth and its connection with the success of the economy and welfare have been taken for granted throughout the history of industrialisation. The main question has been how to grow. In the modern era, this dialogue has taken place between large firms and society. In science, this story can be identified in the dialogue between economics and sociology. In this presentation, it is suggested that through entrepreneurship, economy and sustainable development can produce a new approach to the discussion between economy and welfare. To delineate this connection, it is necessary to reveal some misinterpretations concerning the development of the paradigms in both entrepreneurship and environmental economics. At the same time we create the basis for an alternative discussion of growth.

Key words:

• Sustainable development
• economics
• entrepreneurship
• ecological economics sociology
• growth