Developing Brazil's sustainable finance entrepreneurship ecosystem: the role of keystone actors and institutional logics

Insufficient attention has been given to the need to nurture the new emerging forms of sustainable entrepreneurship which are required to meet the sustainable development objectives for emerging economies like Brazil. In this chapter, we focus on finance as an essential enabler, critically assessing the roles of key actors in developing suitable Sustainable Entrepreneurship Finance Ecosystems (SEFE). Adopting an Institutional Logics lens, we draw on qualitative case methodology to examine the catalytic role of the support organizations operating at the interface between sustainable entrepreneurs, investors and policy to develop and scale-up sustainable enterprise solutions. Findings demonstrate that the emerging sustainable entrepreneurship is hindered by limited business acumen resulting in a lack of financiers’ trust that emerging businesses can deliver against investment requirements. Summarizing findings, we adopt the concept of ‘keystone actors’ from systems ecology to account for emerging multi-level support mechanisms offered by a small number of key actors to overcome SEFE deficiencies and move from “buzzword status” to a valid and practical systemic concept.