Navigating competing priorities for societal value creation: tensions in sustainability-driven enterprises across venture stages

Abstract In the pursuit of impact, entrepreneurs encounter various sustainability tensions throughout the development stages of their venture. Recognizing these tensions is critical for navigating and negotiating competing priorities in societal value creation. However, existing studies on sustainability tensions have mainly focused on large and incumbent firms. While studies exploring tensions in small enterprises have started to emerge, limited attention has been given to sustainability-driven enterprises and the types of tensions they encounter as they move through different venture stages in the pursuit of and scaling for impact. In this paper, we aim to fill this research gap by examining the tensions that sustainability-driven enterprises experience at different venture stages. We employ a multiple case study approach to identify tensions that entrepreneurs encounter in pursuing social and environmental impacts. Our findings identify tensions at three levels—individual, organizational, and macro-level context—and highlight how different tensions dominate at different stages, each carrying distinct implications for impact creation and scaling.