Grassroots ecopreneurs: change agents for a sustainable society

Abstract

Business entrepreneurs contribute to socio‐economic development and change through their commercial enterprises. Enterprising individuals seeking to change society or address social issues through an organized initiative have often been referred to as social entrepreneurs. The past decade has witnessed the emergence of a new breed of eco‐conscious change agents who may be called ecological entrepreneurs (ecopreneurs for short). This paper focuses on the strategies developed by six grassroots ecopreneurs drawn from two Indian states, Gujarat and Maharashtra, in the field of alternative agriculture. The cases in this sample consist of individuals who try to diffuse innovations developed by themselves. The paper also explains the conceptual differences between two types of ecopreneurs and provides the theoretical sampling frame; it discusses the research objectives and methodology and presents the ecopreneurs and their efforts at diffusing their eco‐friendly ideas and innovations. Finally, the paper focuses on two important barriers to ecopreneurship, describes the strategies used to overcome these barriers and draws conclusions.