Ecosmart analysis – sustentabilidade ambiental na incubação de empresas

Abstract

This study covers the adoption and dissemination of environmental sustainability practices in the business incubation process. It addresses incubators' initiatives regarding their own sustainability practices and the mechanisms they use to disseminate it to their tenant start-ups. Practices spontaneously adopted by start-ups were also investigated along with the enablers and barriers that influence this system as a whole. A systematic literature review was conducted to examine environmental sustainability in business incubation in its magnitude. To provide descriptive and thematic analyses, the collected articles were selected and analyzed according to established protocols. The results demonstrate how this relatively recent field has developed mainly from the perspective of new ventures. Various practices, barriers and enablers were identified; however, few studies have adequately captured the interrelationships between them. Within this scarce theoretical field, the originality of the work lies in the gathering of such aspects in a framework that can be used to test the diffusion of environmental practices in incubation. It was empirically validated with Brazilian incubators. To provide an application of the gathered knowledge, a web system for environmental assessment of incubators was developed. Named EcoSmart Analysis, the system classifies incubated companies into five different maturity levels considering the environmental practices adopted by them. Overall, the creation of the Ecosmart Analysis software has implications for incubators and for theory, as it aids the analysis and support for these institutions and their start-ups to move towards sustainability.