Shelby Matevich
Shelby is an interdisciplinary scholar in degrowth economics and politics, she also holds a MSc. in Environmental Science, Policy and Management from Central European University. Her research focused on biodiversity conservation and natural resource management in Eastern and Southern Africa. Based in Amsterdam, she has spent the last six years working in non-profit operations, working to scale young non-profits into internationally recognized leaders in their field.
Entrepreneurship and transformative change in a biodiversity crisis
Biodiversity is declining at dangerous and unprecedented rates around the world.
Leading conservation institutions are calling for transformative change in conservation action and across technological, economic, and social factors—including paradigms, goals, and values. Entrepreneurship seems a likely ally for this task given its recognition as an agent of change—however, research at the nexus of entrepreneurship and biodiversity conservation is scarce. This theoretical contribution reflects adjacent literatures of social, environmental, and sustainable entrepreneurship for grand challenges. It places seminal entrepreneurship articles in dialogue with leading perspectives on the underlying causes of biodiversity loss, namely: disconnection from and domination over nature and people; concentration of power and wealth; and prioritization of short-term, individual, and material gains. It reflects on where entrepreneurship already makes meaningful contributions toward these challenges, where it falls short of transformative potential, and how an integration of the conservation social sciences can fill that gap. As researchers seek to articulate entrepreneurship’s role in addressing grand challenges, the conservation context may reveal new pathways—both for understanding entrepreneurship, as well as achieving transformative biodiversity action.