Understanding the business model role in developing competitive advantage for entrepreneurs active in carbon offsetting and/or insetting and the impact of the reductive seduction bias on this development

Details

Supervisors

Hermans, Julie ; Ramirez Torres, Natalia Lizzeth

Faculty

Louvain School of Management

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences de gestion, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

This thesis investigates the development of competitive advantage through business models for carbon offsetting and insetting companies as well as how the notion of reductive seduction bias impacts this development. Thus, the objective of this research is twofold. The first step is to examine how competitive advantage is enabled by the business model using the criteria defined by our literature review. Afterwards, we are going to identify the possible impact of the reductive seduction bias on this advantage. Therefore, we want to answer the following two research questions: 1) How can entrepreneurs in carbon offsetting and/or insetting build a competitive advantage by elaborating their business model? 2) How does the bias of reductive seduction impact the building of this competitive advantage? To answer those two questions, we proceed with a qualitative research method through semi-structured interviews of seventeen international entrepreneurs and experts mainly active in the carbon area, respectively eleven entrepreneurs and six experts. Our research contributes to the scientific literature by identifying many new elements for the development of competitive advantage in the carbon area and about the reductive seduction bias. On the one hand, for the development of competitive advantage, an example of insights that we brought is the identification of two new key elements of the business model as drivers of competitive advantage in the carbon world. On the other hand, for the bias, another example of our contribution to the existing literature is the five new tips that we mentioned to go over the complexity of the complex problems and avoid falling into the reductive seduction bias. In addition, we are going to make several recommendations to practitioners, firstly to entrepreneurs in carbon offsetting and/or insetting on how to develop a competitive edge with their business model in their area. Secondly, we will advise them on how they can overcome the complexity of the carbon emissions offsetting and insetting problems and not fall into the bias of reductive seduction. To conclude, we are going to advise public authorities, so they can improve the attractiveness of carbon markets. Finally, by doing this document, we want it to be part of a movement to make the world a better place and our economies more sustainable.