Percorrer por autor "Lameiro, Sara Filipa Mendes"
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- Sustainability : the requirement for funding?Publication . Lameiro, Sara Filipa Mendes; Costa, Cláudia Isabel de SousaNew businesses have been increasingly pressured to deal with social and environmental issues on its own or while performing their economic activities. Therefore, socially-responsible businesses should be considered more appealing for investors. Academically, the ability of businesses to address social and/or environmental challenges while being profitable is still under debate. Thus, studying the challenges that sustainable new businesses face in attracting funding from investors is essential. The present dissertation focuses on understanding the impact of communicating a sustainability claim in the decision of investors. An inductive, multiple-case study was conducted using a sample of six socially-responsible business cases, selected from Climate-KIC acceleration program, through semi-structured interviews. Different types of hybrid businesses were identified according to their environmental, social and economic value creation and objectives, clarifying their value proposition either at the initial moment and when pitching to investors. Our findings suggest that the initial value proposition is defined according to founders’ vision (business objectives) and customers’ interests. However, when attracting funds, entrepreneurs need to be aware of different investor’ types: the most common, traditional investors, look for high economic return; and socially-responsible investors (rare) additionally require a sustainability claim. Therefore, in order to receive funds, entrepreneurs adapt their initial value proposition, always making a strong communication of their economic aspect. Communicating a sustainability claim is only required when pitching to socially-responsible investors. This study contributes to understand which business aspects (sustainable vs non-sustainable) investors most value, assisting entrepreneurs at acknowledging which ones must be highlighted when pitching.