Business Commons^™

Barriers For Small Businesses To Adopt Sustainable Practices In The Sioux Falls Area, Meredith King

Honors Thesis

Sustainability is a broad concept that encompasses environmental, social, and economic factors to meet current and future needs. Many individuals and large businesses are becoming conscious of the effects they have on the planet and the people around them. However, despite the financial benefits and positive publicity of environmentalism, many businesses are not adopting sustainable practices. This study interviewed local business owners to answer the question “What are the main reasons that small businesses in the Sioux Falls area of South Dakota do or do not adopt sustainable practices that benefit the environment and the community?” Five business owners were …

Practical Challenges Of Differentiated, For-Profit Social Ventures, Gabriel M. Blake

Honors Thesis

When social entrepreneurs create a for-profit enterprise focused on addressing a particular public need, there are many specific challenges and barriers that stand in their way of becoming a sustainable, revenue-generating business. Many of these challenges are currently unknown to many nascent social entrepreneurs, and in most cases, these challenges will cause the venture to fail or never reach operational scale (Renko, 1047).

Social entrepreneurs face many unique challenges and barriers that traditional entrepreneurs do not necessarily encounter. Typical challenges include balancing the needs of disparate stakeholders (Smith, 464), maintaining robust cash flows and profits while simultaneously remaining committed to …