{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,20]],"date-time":"2025-12-20T22:14:41Z","timestamp":1766268881978,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":34,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,23]],"date-time":"2021-03-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1616457600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sustainability"],"abstract":"<jats:p>User entrepreneurs rely on regular consumers when starting their business, for example, when raising creative and financial support. This research examines regular consumers\u2019 opinions with regard to the future business performance of green vs. non-green user entrepreneurs. We build on previous consumer behavior research on consumers\u2019 performance perceptions. Specifically, consumers perceive products that use green, environmentally friendly technologies as having inferior performance compared to products that use traditional technologies. We investigate whether this so called \u201csustainability liability\u201d effect can also be found in consumers\u2019 perceptions of green user entrepreneurs\u2019 performance. We ran an online scenario experiment with regular consumers who assessed the business performance of several (green vs. non-green) user entrepreneurs. Results reveal a \u201csustainability asset\u201d effect for perceptions of green user entrepreneurs, such that consumers with strong environmental values perceived the business performance of green user entrepreneurs as superior compared to non-green user entrepreneurs. Consumers with weak environmental values perceived green and non-green entrepreneurs as equally performant. We discuss possible explanations of our findings. Furthermore, we propose potential consequences of our results both for consumers\u2019 intentions to support user entrepreneurs as well as for user entrepreneurs\u2019 motivation to engage in green innovations.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/su13063580","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,23]],"date-time":"2021-03-23T23:59:41Z","timestamp":1616543981000},"page":"3580","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":9,"title":["Perceptions of Green User Entrepreneurs\u2019 Performance\u2014Is Sustainability an Asset or a Liability for Innovators?"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0129-670X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jana","family":"M\u00f6ller","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Marketing-Department, School of Business &amp; Economics, Freie Universit\u00e4t Berlin, 14195 Berlin, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1578-291X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Steffen","family":"Herm","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"HTW Berlin Business School, Hochschule f\u00fcr Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin, 10318 Berlin, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Maier, D., Maier, A., A\u0219chilean, I., Anastasiu, L., and Gavri\u0219, O. 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