Theory and evidence of customer involvement in sustainable entrepreneurship

Customer involvement (CI) has emerged as a crucial strategy forsustainable ventures, where economic viability and positivesocietal or ecological impact must be balanced. This articleprovides an examination of CI through the lenses of the leanstart-up methodology and resource dependence theory. Itargues that CI can be leveraged not only to obtain timely feed-back but also to manage critical external resources—particularlyin resource-scarce and dynamic markets. The article furtherexplores how CI can be adapted and expanded in the contextof sustainability-oriented ventures, and how real start-ups fromthe field of sustainable entrepreneurship deal with it in view ofheightened scrutiny regarding authenticity, ethics, and long-term impact. By integrating diverse stakeholder feedback andemphasizing transparent, participatory processes, such venturescan transform CI into a normative and system-level engagementmechanism. The resulting insights underscore the value of CI forsustainable-oriented start-ups, offering guidelines for imple-mentation and drawing theoretical implications.