Entrepreneurial Energy: Associative Entrepreneurship in the Renewable Energy Sector in Wales

Abstract

The central suggestion of this paper is that innovation in the concept of entrepreneurship is overdue and that the concept of entrepreneurship needs to be extended to accommodate its often neglected collective or pluralistic dimension, a concept we have called ‘associative entrepreneurship’. We have also argued that there may be a natural link between sustainability and the co-operative form. In this paper we draw these themes together by considering the entrepreneurial potential expressed by the recent creation of mutual businesses in a range of renewable energy sectors in Wales. We suggest that, at least in the renewable energy sector and perhaps in other sectors too, innovation in the direction of sustainability may require a development of the concept of entrepreneurship in the direction of mutualism. In view of the urgent need to move towards a low-carbon economy and the expansion of the renewable energy sector this would require, understanding of the motivations of entrepreneurs in this sector is of great value.

Keywords: Associative entrepreneurship, social enterprise, renewable energy, co-operatives, sustainability, socio-economic development, Wales

JEL Classification: P13, Q42