The emerging complexity of business and social entrepreneurship: Two clean technology ventures in New York City as cases in point

There appears to be a potential dichotomy in clean technology or cleantech entrepreneurship, business-oriented and social entrepreneurship. This dichotomy is studied using two representative case studies. One case is Verdant Power, which is a world leader in the development of marine renewable energy technology and project development. The other case is Green Map Systems, which is a not-for-profit organization that develops “Green Maps” that employ icons to indicate sustainability and related sites on its maps. The study compares these two organizations along three dimensions: technology regimes, decision-making types and kinds of overarching entrepreneurial goals. The study concludes that the cleantech entrepreneurial venue is too complex for using a simple business-versus-social dichotomy. Instead, a more contingent and a multifaceted set of dimensions have emerged to better characterize cleantech entrepreneurship. Furthermore, the diverse constellation and evolutionary dynamics of cleantech entrepreneurship initiatives, which the study uncovered, needs to be recognized, better understood and nourished in order for modern entrepreneurship to play fully its varied roles in launching and sustaining a robust and powerful clean technology sector.