Abstract

A recent line of research has focused on the idea of sustainable and culturally appropriate entrepreneurship, which promotes and enhances community values and traditions, rather than imposing traditional top-down economic models that may change society. The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan provides a unique environment to study this approach, as there is both a strong political drive towards fostering entrepreneurship and an underlying culture of sustainability enshrined in the philosophy of Gross National Happiness (GNH). The Bhutanese government champions entrepreneurship as a way to alleviate poverty and achieve sustainable economic development. However, there is little evidence to verify this, nor an understanding of how entrepreneurship under GNH may be conceptualised. This paper presents a series of case vignettes that explore entrepreneurship development in the agribusiness, tourism and craft sectors. This study seeks to contribute to the evidence base for both sustainable entrepreneurship and GNH and outlines a future research agenda.