Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop an original six-phase model describing entrepreneurial learning in the transition of place-based enterprises toward a sustainable exploitation of natural common resources (commons). Design/methodology/approach: The six-phase model proposed by this study explains the learning processes involving place-based enterprises through two important existing theories: adaptive co-management and Lachmann’s evolutionary, embedded theory of entrepreneurship. The proposed model integrates these two theories on the basis of a longitudinal case study on the fishing enterprises in an Italian marine protected area (MPA). Findings: In the case study, the success factors identified by the adaptive co-management literature proved important in enabling an embedded entrepreneurial learning process consistent with Lachmann’s view. The case analysis allowed the authors to cluster these learning processes around six phases. Further, even if traditional fishing is not knowledge-intensive, this case shows the transition to a sustainable business model required intense efforts of educated institutional work and scientific research. Interestingly, the key learning processes were enabled by the emergence of a larger, networked social entity (a network form of organization) including the community of fishermen, the MPA management and a network of scientists studying the marine area ecosystem. Research limitations/implications: This study is explorative and relies on a single case study. Despite this limitation, it opens up new research paths in the fields of entrepreneurship, institutional work, network organizations and adaptive management of the commons. Originality/value: This study is strongly interdisciplinary; it proposes an original model based on a theoretical view that is highly innovative for organization and management studies; and addresses a relevant but overlooked issue with important societal implications.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse how sustainability is crucial in maintaining and assigning value to a common good. In particular, the paper identifies several characteristics of a business model that could be adopted to manage sustainable innovation strategies that respect the balance among environmental, social and commercial goals. Design/methodology/approach: This case study involves Fontanafredda, an internationally recognised historical Italian wine company characterised by its highly innovative business approach and sustainable business model. Findings: Fontanafredda’s approach is connected to the broader concept of the common good the winery has internalised to become an element of its competitive advantage and differentiation. The preservation of traditional values – primarily the respect and valuing of one’s own territory – is a key asset of the winery, which attaches great symbolic and concrete importance to these values. Research limitations/implications: The study uses a single case study approach and a qualitative method without quantifying the impact of every business choice. For theoretical implications, the study emphasises the strong connection between sustainability and innovation in the management of the common good. Practical implications: Numerous practical implications are identified regarding several stakeholder groups, such as the management, owners, investors and the various entities linked to the regional promotion and tourism sectors. Originality/value: This research explores how and why Fontanafredda amounts to more than simply wine production by focusing on the characteristics of its business model, which efficiently handles the link between innovation and heritage for common-good development.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to link empowerment to the engagement of low-power stakeholders in the context of marine protected areas (MPAs) to suggest how empowerment-based engagement can be strategised to prevent and overcome management crises within a natural common good and ultimately achieve effective co-management. Design/methodology/approach: This research employs a longitudinal case study methodology. The subject of the study is Torre Guaceto MPA, a natural common good, internationally recognised as a best practice of co-management. Findings: The case study illustrates specific empowerment areas and actions that help move low-power stakeholders to higher levels of engagement to achieve effective co-management. It also suggests that the main strategic implication of empowerment-based engagement is the creation of empowered stakeholders who can serve as catalysts for sustaining the common through the development of entrepreneurial skills that satisfy joint interests. Research limitations/implications: The applied methodology of a single case and the peculiar conditions intrinsic to this case can be overcome via the inclusion and comparison of other similar commons. Practical implications: The study provides a stakeholder management model of empowerment-based engagement that offers concrete evidence of empowerment strategies that can be adopted and adapted by the management of similar natural common goods. Originality/value: The research fills the literature gaps related to understanding the antecedents of engagement and its strategic implications within natural common pool resources.

Despite the literature on social innovation (SI) in ecosystems growing considerably in recent years, what makes an ecosystem a facilitator for transformative SI remains unexamined, particularly indeveloping and emerging countries. Our research aims to fill this literature gap by determining which combination of characteristics—stemming from stakeholder theory and knowledge management–turns local smallholder coffee farmers in developing and emerging producing countries into autonomous and empowered partners and catalysts for spreading SI initiatives locally. We adopt a configurational approach using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis of 18 SI projects that coffee MNEs, nongovernmental organizations, and institutions have undertaken to favor such an egalitarian value co-creation with local stakeholders. We demonstrate that stakeholder empowerment, cooperative strategic posturing, knowledge transfer, and local knowledge exchange are necessary conditions within the ecosystem to create local autonomy as an antecedent for transformative SI. The novelty in our approach lies in proposing a shift from a pure firm-centric perspective based on stakeholder dependence to a more participatory relational perspective that entails lower-power stakeholders’ interdependence and collaboration for autonomous decision-making, thereby advancing fresh thinking on stakeholder and knowledge management applied to SI in developing and emerging contexts. We also propose practical suggestions to deal with stakeholder power’s imbalances, which might limit the ecosystems’ adaptation toward transformative SI.