Regenerative Entrepreneurship : How the Enactment of Values Can Guide Humanity into a Safe and Just Operating Space

Abstract: The current efforts to address global sustainability issues are failing. To avoid the consequences of transgressing the planetary boundaries and simultaneously provide people with the basic needs for human prosperity, we have to overcome a profound challenge. We have to produce economic and social well-being while, at the same time, resolving long-standing environmental problems that threaten our very own existence. To overcome this challenge, new types of values-driven enterprises and innovations that aim to regenerate Earth have to guide global development and decision making.   Therefore, this study investigates a new approach to entrepreneurship called regenerative entrepreneurship, an approach that aims to reframe the meaning and purpose of sustainability by building flourishing socio-ecological systems through innovations and business practices that are regenerative by design. By conducting a multiple case study of regenerative organizations, we have delved into the personal stories of entrepreneurs who, on a daily basis, enact their values to regenerate Earth. Through this, we have answered the question of how regenerative entrepreneurs enact their values to build and maintain regenerative organizations.   The findings suggest that regenerative entrepreneurs enact their values in two ways, proactively and reactively, by constantly aligning and calibrating their values, personally, internally, and externally, making sure that they themselves and all their stakeholders work towards the same vision of regenerating Earth.