Adaptability, Entrepreneurship and Stakeholder Integration: Scenarios and Strategies for Environment and Vulnerability

Abstract

The "vicious circle" between poverty and environmental deterioration is a major challenge for those developmental approaches which look to improve the welfare of vulnerable communities. Environmental deterioration increases poverty while, at the same time, poverty causes further environmental deterioration as the business activities which communities depend upon for survival aggravate environmental deterioration by causing pollution and waste. It is therefore necessary that firms and communities collaborate in order to develop innovative solutions to break this vicious circle. This paper argues that such collaboration should be based on genuine stakeholders' integration and entrepreneurship, proposes a holistic framework to guide business intervention strategies, and further explores collaboration scenarios between firms and communities. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]