Learning together for a greener future: Teampreneurship as an open approach to green entrepreneurship education

Abstract

Traditional entrepreneurship education centres the individual entrepreneur and evaluates innovation primarily on market value, ill-suiting the systemic challenge of the climate crisis. The literature identifies significant gaps in green entrepreneurship pedagogy, including a lack of interdisciplinary approaches and a failure to cultivate the collective-action competencies that sustainable ventures require. This paper introduces “teampreneurship”: a collaborative, cooperative, and intercultural model of entrepreneurship education grounded in environmental and social purpose. We present evidence from the first edition of TEAMIT+, a European Union-funded three-module programme implemented across four countries (Finland, France, Greece, Spain) in 2024. Module 1 raises environmental awareness through experiential collective engagement; Module 2 connects participants to authentic industry innovation challenges; and Module 3 guides intercultural teams through the creation of social-impact business ventures. The programme is grounded in Nonaka and Takeuchi’s (1995) knowledge-creation theory and a “learning by creating” methodology encompassing experiential, team-based, and self-directed learning. Module 1 achieved a 97% satisfaction rate and 99% of participants reported improved environmental knowledge, far exceeding the 80% target. Sixty-four percent reported heightened awareness of environmental policy, and 58% expressed a strong commitment to reducing their environmental impact. Qualitative data reveal a shift from individualistic to systemic framings of climate responsibility, and the programme’s approach to managing eco-anxiety through collective empowerment was consistently valued. Module 3 yielded 10 business projects across diverse sustainability domains, demonstrating operationalised environmental commitment. The results support the viability of an awareness-first, team-based approach to green entrepreneurship education. Teampreneurship, combining intercultural collaboration, cooperative values, and impact-oriented innovation, offers a structurally promising alternative to individual-entrepreneur models. Expanded longitudinal assessment and targeted inclusivity strategies are needed to consolidate these findings.