Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Development: The “Entrepreneurial Society” Put to the Test by the Health Crisis

Montpellier Management Espace Richter, MDE Aimé Schoenig and Building B – Rue Vendémiaire, 34960 Montpellier.

16th Conference of the International Research Network on Organizations and Sustainable Development

With its sudden and brutal onset and the emergency measures it has imposed worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a systemic crisis that, beyond purely health-related concerns, has shaken many certainties—and even beliefs—regarding the principles governing societies, both nationally and internationally. It has thus starkly highlighted the fragility of dominant economic and social models, which struggle to accurately anticipate risks and provide solutions that are unquestionable in terms of both effectiveness and ethics. In this sense, it ties back to the fundamental debate that RIODD has been advancing since its inception regarding development models and their implications for organizations. This debate focuses first on the meaning of actions, the individual and collective objectives pursued, and the order of priorities. It then addresses the means of undertaking these actions and pursuing these objectives. It thus leads to questions about the respective roles and legitimacy of public authorities and private actors, as well as the appropriate level and nature of coordination between them.

The original aim of the 15th RIODD Congress (2020) was precisely to address this debate at the organizational level by examining the model of the “entrepreneurial society ” (D. Audretsch, 2006, 2007), which leaders in many countries have been promoting for several years as particularly relevant to addressing major contemporary social and environmental challenges. Since health restrictions led to a scaled-down, remote version of the 2020 conference, the 2021 edition should allow us to continue and meaningfully deepen the debate, bringing together more than ever the perspectives of sociologists, philosophers, legal scholars, historians, geographers, and ecologists with those of economists and management specialists. The health crisis, through the speed and scale of the upheavals it has caused, has indeed provided a formidable basis for analyzing the model of the “entrepreneurial society”  (and alternative models), which will serve as the foundation for the conference’s discussions. These will center on the challenges of innovation in products, services, processes, and management (Schumpeter, 1935; Carland, Hoy, Boulton, and Carland, 1984) within public and private organizations; on new opportunities and those that have been destroyed (Venkataraman, 1997; Shane and Venkataraman, 2000), the growth or decline of organizations (Gartner, 1985), and the creation or destruction of economic and non-economic value (Gartner, 1990).

Government interventions, made necessary to combat the pandemic and address the global economic and social crisis it has triggered, have reemphasized the irreplaceable role of governments in times of crisis. This resurgence of public authority, the holder of sovereign powers, has been accompanied, moreover, by numerous initiatives from both the business sector and civil society groups, aimed at finding innovative solutions to the problems—sometimes unprecedented—posed by these events. Thus, within a largely transformed context, the conditions are emerging for the emergence of a “balanced society” (Mintzberg, 2017) among the “three pillars” constituted by states, markets, and organized communities (ibid.).

In line with the ongoing effort to renew the frameworks for analyzing economic and social policies, a key question arises regarding a review of the United Nations’ “2030 Agenda” and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which were established in a different context in 2015. In what way should these SDGs be revised, and how should the role assigned to organizations (public, private, or community-based) be defined to achieve true sustainability? This major issue will be at the heart of the discussions at the 16th RIODD Congress.

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