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FEDERAL STATE AUTONOMOUS EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION

FOR HIGHER PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION

NATIONAL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY HIGHER SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

St. Petersburg School of Social Sciences and Area Studies

BACHELOR'S PROJECT

Field of study: 39.03.01 Sociology

Degree programme: Sociology and Social Informatics

Between entrepreneurship and lifestyle: the case of young vegans of Saint-Petersburg

Mastyugina Yekaterina Supervisor:

Candidate of Sociological Sciences (PhD)

Y. N. Krupets

Saint Petersburg 2020

Abstract

This work is devoted to the study of vegan entrepreneurship, as well as its relationship with lifestyle. The study was conducted using a qualitative methodology, 11 semi-structured interviews were taken, the analysis was performed using the methods of sound theory (open and axial coding), and a discourse analysis was also conducted.

Key words: veganism, lifestyle, entrepreneurship, consumption, vegan business.

Table of contents

Abstract

1. Introduction

2. Literature review

2.1 The basic concepts

2.2 Relation between entrepreneurship, lifestyle and consumption

2.3 Veganism and vegan consumption

2.3.1 Vegan Lifestyle

2.3.2 Vegan consumption as a type of conscious consumption and political consumerism

2.4 Vegan entrepreneurs

3. Methods

3.1 Procedures of grounded theory: open and axial coding

3.2 Discourse analysis

4. Results

4.1 Tree of codes and its key categories

4.2 What it is to be vegan: lifestyle of vegan entrepreneurs

4.3 Vegan business in Saint-Petersburg

4.3.1 Business creation and purpose of the opening

4.3.2 Why do vegans open vegan businesses: goals and missions

4.3.3 Entrepreneurship as a part of lifestyle or just a business?

4.3.4 Possibilities, difficulties and competition

4.3.5 Future of vegan business: plans of entrepreneurs

4.4 Representation of Saint-Petersburg vegan business in media

5. Conclusion and limitations

5.1 Conclusion

5.2 Limitations

References

Appendices

1. Introduction

According to the Vegan Society (2020), “veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude--as far as is possible and practicable--all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of animals, humans and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals”. In this study, I will use the word “veganism” and “vegan” which is a person who is adhering to this view (lifestyle). There is an increasing spread of veganism. This trend is visible from numerous sources that overlook the statistics, such as The Vegan Society (2020), a charity organization founded in 1944 to distribute informational, educational resources, news and tips to promote veganism, according to Health Careers infographic (2020), according to BBC articles (2020), statistics from Statista (2018), as well as tracking the dynamics of vegan-related queries in search sources like in Google trends (Appendix 1). Looking at Saint-Petersburg, every year we see a rapid increase in the number of different vegan establishments, including cafes, grocery stores, ethical cosmetics, and clothing. This can be seen in the example of an increasing number of places in the international application to search for vegan places HappyCow and on the recently appeared VeggieGo social network, which contains information about places in St. Petersburg and Moscow.

Speaking about the study of the vegan community, quite a lot of information is covered on the topic of transition to veganism, vegan identity, and activism, however, there is little published data on vegan business itself and entrepreneurs. In this regard, I was interested in identifying the motives for their actions, how they came to this business, and since there has been no detailed investigation devoted to the relation of their lifestyle (veganism) and business, the intersection of veganism and their entrepreneurial activity was studied. On the one hand, vegan entrepreneurs shape their lifestyle into a business, on the other hand, this business creates a space for other people to realize their lifestyle. Accordingly, this relation was studied in this paper.

The research question is “What does it mean to be a vegan entrepreneur and to do vegan business in Saint-Petersburg?” The sub-question is “What is the relation between entrepreneurship as a business and lifestyle for vegan entrepreneurs from Saint-Petersburg?” The objectives for the paper are: (a) to describe the lifestyle and define the characteristics of the life path of informants; (b) to describe how the vegans came to the creation of their business and what was the purpose of starting a business; (c) to determine how entrepreneurs define the aim or mission of their business; and (d) to describe how does entrepreneurship fit into the vegan lifestyle. Thus, I combine several traditions - lifestyle and entrepreneurship.

The method of collecting data was semi-structured interviews. The research group are vegan entrepreneurs who are owners of vegan businesses which are vegan grocery stores, different cafes, clothing stores, cosmetics, and who are producers of vegan food. 11 interviews were collected and transcribed. The method for the analysis of interviews was procedures from the grounded theory: open and axial coding. As an additional method for the analysis was discourse analysis of media resources about how vegan business is represented in the media. 11 articles were found and analyzed.

2. Literature review

2.1 The basic concepts

This research involves the study of the relationship between lifestyle, entrepreneurship and consumption. Accordingly, further to understand the context of these concepts' use in this work, they will be defined. A lifestyle is a person's daily practices, habits, tastes, how he or she prefers to dress, what leisure to choose, and what determines his personality, self-expression, and self-awareness (Featherstone, 1987). By the lifestyle in this work, I will mean exactly the vegan lifestyle, that is, those people, as was said earlier, who do not use animals in food, clothing, entertainment, cosmetics, household chemicals, and others. “Entrepreneurship refers primarily to an economic function that is carried out by individuals, entrepreneurs, acting independently or within organizations, to perceive and create new opportunities and to introduce their ideas into the market, under uncertainty, by making decisions about location, product design, resource use, institutions, and reward systems” (Carlsson et al., 2013). So, by entrepreneurship I will mean vegan entrepreneurship. “Consumption is a social, cultural, and economic process of choosing goods, and this process reflects the opportunities and constraints of modernity” (Zukin et al., 2004). As well as for lifestyle, by consumption, I will mean vegan consumption, which is the consumption of vegan goods and services. Thus, the listed concepts are key in this work, as well as a definition of veganism given above.

2.2 Relation between entrepreneurship, lifestyle and consumption

Today, the new economy in the context of the development of a consumer society increasingly associates consumption with a lifestyle, that is, a lifestyle begins to dictate what consumption will be, and an increasing emphasis is placed on values. An example of such a bundle is green consumption in the context of increasing attention to a sustainable lifestyle discussed by Gilg et al. (2005). Green consumption is a consumption characterized by maintaining environmental protection for both the present and the future, it includes various forms of environmentally friendly products. It is closely associated with a sustainable lifestyle (a lifestyle that aims to reduce the human impact on nature, includes a limitation of both Earth's resources and personal resources), which often shows that the border between consumption and lifestyle is blurred, more often the lifestyle determines what goods and services a person will or will not consume. Steel also in his work (1996) found confirmation of the influence of human values on his behavior, in particular, for those people who consider nature to be something important for their lives, will be more environmentally active and more careful towards nature. This means that their consumer habits will go along with environmental habits.

In addition to the connection between consumption and lifestyle, consumption is also very often associated with entrepreneurship or production. And in general, the new economy is characterized by changes such as the transition from a managed economy to an entrepreneurial economy (Audretsch, 2001). And also, significant interest in this work relates to what is happening in the new economy, where there is a combination of consumption, lifestyle, and entrepreneurship? Today, in the context of the development of a consumer society, the new economy is increasingly linking consumption with a lifestyle, that is, the lifestyle begins to dictate what consumption will be, the emphasis puts on the values of a person (lifestyle). As well, the modern economy is characterized by the blurring of the line between consumption and production, and that a competent consumer can become an entrepreneur and can turn it into a business. Based on this, we can talk about such a concept as prosumption.

The term prosumption is attributed to Toffler (1980). Prosumption is such an economic form that is neither production nor consumption but combines both of these concepts. Thus, the prosumer is the person who both consumes and produces. Since the 70s there has been a reorientation and development of the consumer society. Jean Baudrillard (1970) previously emphasized production, but he also recognized the growing importance of consumption. He says that people surround themselves with commodities and that “consumption is laying hold of the whole of life”. If we talk about consumption in modern time, and especially in the age of the digital “prosumer” (Ritzer et al., 2010), then this form of a combination of consumption and production is considered to be prosperous. People have more and more opportunities to influence market trends and be an active part of it. There are also concepts “co-creation”, “co-production” that describe situations of cooperation between consumers and producers for the production of certain things, being in a symbiotic relationship (Humphreys et al., 2008). However, here, the roles of the consumer and the manufacturer are different, you cannot talk about their combination. This work will focus on prosumption, however, some elements of “co-creation”, “co-production” have a place to be. These elements are likely to be traced in obtaining empirical data.

However, here it is worth considering the feedback: the fact that consumption has a certain influence on the lifestyle and not just the other way around. In the course of the Finnish study (Wilska, 2002), it was revealed that people do not always consciously understand that consumption is the main part of a person's identity. Speaking of vegans, consumption is already a conscious rejection of the products of exploitation, however, taking into account the non-vegans, with the increasing availability and prevalence of vegan products, this trend can affect them, their consumer behavior, and, accordingly, their lifestyle. Indeed, since veganism is gradually becoming an increasingly familiar lifestyle, respectively, people are increasingly accepting it and can make it part of their identity. Returning to vegan entrepreneurs, the central interest of research, perhaps one of the driving motivations for starting a business is redefining consumer practices and their impact on buyers' lifestyles. Accordingly, the opening of new establishments may affect the spread of the vegan lifestyle.

Also, we should not underestimate the role that values began to play in consumption. Schwartz (1994) defined human values as desired situational goals that people share in importance and serve as a driving force in human life. Speaking about the values of vegans, they include demonstrating compassion and respect for all living beings, speaking out against violence and inequality in any of its manifestations, respecting the life of another and rejecting the suffering of other living beings for the sake of convenience, comfort or nutrition, also includes that the vegan seeks to be conscious and reflect on her choices and decisions (Hunter, 2020). Thus, these values are the basis for consumption by vegans.

Considering the analysis of lifestyle in general, it is necessary to study its components such as activities and behavior (consumer behavior, work, day and leisure activities), values ??and attitudes, individuals or groups aspect (unique lifestyle or it was influenced by social relations), group interaction (social contact with other members), coherence (does a lifestyle consist of a certain order of actions that are related to other aspects of life), recognizability (do others share this lifestyle), and choice (is a person's lifestyle a choice) (Veal, 1993). This approach to analysis allows us to consider all aspects, which, of course, helped me in the analysis of empirical material.

2.3 Veganism and vegan consumption

2.3.1 Vegan Lifestyle

Being in a world in which the values of other people differ from the values and views of vegans, the latter are in a situation of struggle with the “animal-based consumer-driven society”, where there is only ethical veganism, and all this characterizes the participants of the vegan community (Greenebaum, 2012). In this struggle for equality alone, for any creature you can see the distinctive features of vegans. And also, the results suggest that informants consider veganism to be part of their identity. According to Hamilton (1993), veganism is associated with a tendency to deviate from generally accepted social norms through the search for alternatives, that is, to abandon the products of exploitation, and this affects the whole lifestyle and applies to all spheres of life. Speaking about the transition to veganism and the reasons for this transition, we can turn to the study of McDonald (2000). The researcher identified several key points in the transition process. Among them: a certain unique personal experience; some catalyst (for example, witnessed cruelty to animals), as a result of this suppression of emotions caused by the catalyst, or orientation: to the desire to learn more information about veganism or the decision to become a vegan; passing a certain amount of time to comprehend the information received, as well as revising views on veganism and adopting these views. Of course, everyone who switched to veganism has his own unique experience, however, many of the stages mentioned earlier go through almost every person who switched to this view.

Returning to the topic of values, it is worth mentioning what characterizes vegans in comparison with non-vegans. So, a look at eating animals for vegans is not only what causes emotional discomfort, they consider it inappropriate (Cooper et al., 1985). Reasons for switching to veganism range from animal welfare to health and environmental reasons (Fox & Ward, 2008; Greenebaum, 2012), with ethical reasons dominating (Cole & Morgan, 2011; Greenebaum, 2012; Larsson et al., 2003; McDonald et al., 1999). It is also worth noting that sometimes vegans encounter negative attitudes from family and friends when switching to this lifestyle (McDonald et al., 1999) and at the same time, newly-minted vegans try by their example to show the positive aspects of veganism (Greenebaum, 2012). An Icelandic study (Stefánsson, 2015) describes vegans as those who came to these views, mainly for ethical or moral reasons, they have at least a few people in the vegan environment, try to support vegan growers very much and buy vegan products, encourage those close to switching to plant foods, the family is more often tolerant of their lifestyle.

2.3.2 Vegan consumption as a type of conscious consumption and political consumerism

Further, it is necessary to clarify what vegan consumption includes in relation to the vegan lifestyle, as well as how this consumption relates to conscious consumption. The aspect of political consumerism in this context also will be considered.

Conscious consumption is such a choice of goods or services, which includes an attentive attitude to social justice, values of sustainability, rights of workers, as well as the environmental impact of these goods and services (Carr et al., 2012). Thus, veganism can be attributed to conscious consumption, in particular, ethical veganism, since its main mission is an attentive attitude to animals and the conscious rejection of animal products. It is also worth clarifying that it is ethical veganism that says that the exploitation of animals is immoral, causing them to suffer, limit, and use for any purpose (McPherson, 2014).

In addition to the fact that veganism is obviously conscious consumption, we can speak of veganism as political consumerism. As Micheletti et al. stated (2010, 2012), veganism refers to 4 types of political consumerism: “boycotting, buycotting, lifestyle, and discursive strategies”, that is, boycotting is the rejection of meat, dairy and other products of exploitation, buycotting is the stimulation of demand, for example, alternative vegetable products or products from artificial fur, etc., an attempt to change the lifestyle, as well as participating in the discourse about veganism and promoting it to the masses. In turn, all 4 aspects of political consumerism taken together allow for increased mobilization and interest in veganism (Jallinoja et al., 2018). Summarizing the above, the vegan lifestyle related to conscious consumption is also political consumerism, and, accordingly, vegan entrepreneurs are the objects of further interest, which, in fact, have a rather big influence on the development of veganism. They, in turn, adhering to this way of life show how lifestyle, consumption, and production intersect at the same time, and they are prosumers in this case.

Here it is worth considering that people have a need to express their political attitude, which determines consumer behavior, in other words, this is political consumerism (Shah et al., 2007). Expressing one's political or ethical views through consumption is a boycott (Schudson, 2007). Returning to the theme of veganism, to some extent, vegans declare a “boycott” of animal products and try to show their position through political consumerism. The opposite of the boycott is buycott, which is also political consumerism. Buycott, on the contrary, is the support of an industry or business through which people can express their views. Thus, responsible consumers want to influence the market and see certain products there (Neilson, 2010). Again, speaking of veganism, vegans are actively expressing a position regarding the desire for goods that do not carry an expression of cruelty, striving for an ethical market.

2.4 Vegan entrepreneurs

It is worth noting that the development of this consumption market is growing at an increasing pace, however, this is still not a much explored area. The growing number of vegan establishments can be confirmed by the statistics provided by The Vegan Society (2020), Health Careers infographic (2020), BBC articles (2020), statistics from Statista (2018), as well as tracking the dynamics of vegan-related queries in search sources like in Google trends (Appendix 1). Thus, it can be said that veganism is becoming more and more affordable.

If we talk about existing research, Crimarco et al. (2019) studied why entrepreneurs opened vegan restaurants and how vegan business owners influence visitors. The most common reason for opening a vegan business was the lack of vegan options in their settlements. In addition, it is worth noting that restaurant owners were interested in visitors' eating habits and their needs, and concluded that plant nutrition has a certain demand. Accordingly, opening a vegan restaurant is cost-effective. Also, during this conversation, restaurant owners explained to the visitors the benefits and usefulness of plant foods, which also increased interest in this food and this restaurant. An important factor for entrepreneurs was the desire to demonstrate to their customers the palatability of plant nutrition using fresh ingredients. And since taste is one of the significant factors in the formation of food habits (Glanz et al., 1998), for business owners this was a very important task in the formation of their business.

A counter-argument to this article could be an article about ethical business and ethical man Reilly et al. (1990). This article argues that only high-ranking people in business can influence its ethics. However, in many ways, it is small businesses that often set trends for ethical production. Businesses developing from scratch and often with a small number of people contribute to the development of ethical enterprises. In the previous study (Crimarco et al., 2019), business owners are mainly those entrepreneurs who themselves opened firms, relying on customer demand. That is, it is not necessary to influence a large number of people to influence the food preferences of people. This also happens when large networks bring vegan options to their regular menu, but small local establishments are also of great interest to potential consumers. Thus, even small establishments can set certain trends.

The next study on vegetarian food in the restaurant industry includes research on vegetarian options (without meat) in larger chain restaurants (Rivera, 2013). Restaurant owners emphasize the importance of including positions for vegetarians on the menu, and such restaurants have a rather large competitive advantage over others. In particular, restaurant owners, due to the growing trend in demand for vegetarian food, can use this orientation as a whole to promote vegetarian, including wholesome, nutrition. If we talk about the Russian context, a good example is the Pirogoviy Dvorik restaurant chain, which from June 6, 2019 added a vegan menu to its permanent menu. This suggests that the demand for vegan food is growing, which means it makes sense to open separate vegan establishments.

Other examples of successful vegan businesses include Oatly, a Swedish company that makes vegan milk substitute from oats. As a result of the marketing campaign, this product was able to show itself as a worthy alternative to ordinary milk, but also be a fairly similar product in order to use it in your usual food practices (Fuentes & Fuentes, 2017). This example shows that the market is quite “mobile”, consumers are open to high-quality and interesting alternatives to their familiar products. Another study among Italian consumers (Marangon, et al., 2016) about attitudes towards vegan products found that 8% of respondents are willing to pay a higher price for vegan breadsticks, which suggests opportunities for the development of the vegan niche market. The next study by Italian consumers (Bedini et al., 2018) about consuming meat and replacing it with plant-based alternatives suggests that people are also open to such changes. This is due to both reasons for health and eating behavior, as well as a more careful attitude to animals and environmental protection.

The aforementioned study of the vegan market in Iceland (Stefánsson, 2015) showed that the vegan market is not sufficiently developed, there is a significant lacking of vegan goods, the question of opening, for example, a vegan cafe remains open, however there is much talk about opening a vegan place in Reykjavik. Overall, Iceland is in a “revolution” phase for the vegan community. A study of analogues of dairy products in London (Lightowler & Davies,1998) also showed that vegans are beginning to choose enriched milk substitutes, as well as that there is a process of increasing dairy alternatives, their availability and lower prices. It is worth considering that the study was conducted in 1998 and by now the vegan market has definitely changed. An American study (Adise et al., 2015) on the comparison of meat products and their plant alternatives, which resemble animal products, showed that the subjects liked the alternatives, respectively, non-vegans are open to plant analogues of familiar products.

These articles helped to formulate the research methodology, and also helped in the analysis of the data.

3. Methods

3.1 Procedures of grounded theory: open and axial coding

In this paper, a qualitative study was conducted. This approach allows to collect in-depth information about entrepreneurial activity, as well as the interrelation of lifestyle and entrepreneurial sphere of vegans. The key method of collecting data was semi-structured interviews. The interview guide (Appendix 2) consisted of such blocks as general questions for acquaintance, block about vegan experience, about how the informant determines his/her lifestyle, then several blocks directly about the business, which are a block about starting a business and more details about the business itself, about opportunities, difficulties of vegan business and competition, block with clarifying questions about the combination of lifestyle and entrepreneur activity, the role of the city in starting a business, and the final block was the questions about how the informant would evaluate how much he managed to realize his/her plans, about further business development, as well as in the whole of the plans of the informant.

The research group is owners of vegan businesses which are vegan food shops, cafes, clothing stores, cosmetics, and who are producers of vegan food. First of all, a search in social networks, navigation apps, various groups, and lists was conducted to identify key types of vegan businesses in Saint-Petersburg. For the most part, the current list of enterprises was taken from the VKontakte group of the Znak Ravenstva festival (2020). The Znak Ravenstva (previously, Vegan Fest) is a festival held in Saint-Petersburg, dedicated to topics of social justice, veganism, ecology, and activism. This event, which takes place regularly, always has a vegan market and food court, where most vegan cafes, shops, and manufacturers are represented, as well as cosmetics, shoes, accessories, and other components. Local vegan companies are represented at this festival, their list is always replenished, so it is relevant. In addition, I looked for posts about vegan places found by google search, looked at the list in the VeggieGo app to search for vegan and vegetarian places. As a result, the key types of vegan businesses were shops, various cafes, confectionery, cosmetics, various productions, clothing, and footwear. Then, a database of all known businesses was compiled and 38 of them came out. The chosen sampling was maximum variation and this type of sampling was selected to cover all types of business for qualitative analysis. The number of interviews from 10 to 15 were satisfactory in order to achieve theoretical saturation, where narratives about vegan business were repeated, and most importantly, when all existing vegan businesses were covered at least once. Also, this number of interviews is explained by the fact that in Saint-Petersburg are about 40 vegan places or productions. It was planned to write to the representative of each type of business type and to add a few more, however, due to the current crisis situation, as well as the high workload of the entrepreneurs, I wrote to everyone and conducted interviews with all those who responded. Fortunately, representatives of all types of business answered me. Further, where it was possible, to expand experience and diversity, interviews were recruited in the second circle. Thus, I found 38 representatives, each of whom I tried to contact. Out of 38, it turned out to conduct 11 interviews, with which we agreed on certain dates, or they wrote to me about the opportunity to interview on the fact of the possibility. 10 interviews were recorded on the recording tape, 1 interview was conducted in the form of written and voice messages in the Telegram due to the high workload of the informant, the owner of the store. Then, interviews were transcribed

As a result of data collection, first of all, for clarity, I made a Summary table about informants (Appendix 3), as well as transcripts of interviews, and as an example in Appendix 4, I presented a transcript of interview 1 with the creator of ethical shoes.

Among informants, young people aged 19 to 37 years, mainly women, 9 women and 2 men. Their experience of veganism varies from 2 to 12 years. Entrepreneurs represented such types of businesses as a shoe store, sweets, a network of burger joints, an online store, a pizzeria, a bakery, 2 producers of healthy confectionery products, a cosmetics producer, a plant-based meat substitute producer, a grocery store, and some of them are also producers of semi-fabricated products and deliver them to various stores, including large supermarkets. The duration of the interview ranged from 19 minutes to 1 hour 16 minutes. The duration depended on the informant's temporary capabilities, as well as on business experience and the ability to tell in detail about all the processes in creating a business.

Collected interviews were analyzed by the procedures from the grounded theory by Strauss and Corbin (1990). Two stages of analysis were used - open and axial coding. First, open coding was conducted. In this step, primary analytical concepts (codes) were selected, some of them basing on terms used by informants themselves. In the next step, axial coding was conducted, the links between primary codes were identified resulting in categories that were constructed during the analysis.

3.2 Discourse analysis

An additional method of the study was the analysis of media materials about the vegan business in Saint-Petersburg, which was carried out by the method of discourse analysis. It was based on the book of J. P. Gee (2005). Discourse analysis is a qualitative analysis method, structural and semiotic research of texts, in which the use of the language, the meanings of the text, the context and the processes are investigated. In the case of my research, speaking of the analysis of media materials, the analysis of mass communication actually comes down to the analysis of messages produced by the media.

As search resources, Google and Yandex search engines were used for such key queries as “vegan business”, “vegan cafe”, “opening a new vegan place”, “vegan establishments”, “vegan entrepreneurs”, “vegan project”, “ethical business”, “ethical entrepreneurship”. Since I was researching the St. Petersburg vegan business, I included articles from this city in the query results. Also, a fairly large number of materials were found in the search section “news”. It revealed 11 main articles in which the vegan business was a central theme. Among the found media materials, half were articles from the Internet newspaper The Village, the rest from other news sources, one of them was an article from BBC. Basic information about articles can be seen at the Summary table about articles (Appendix 5). As for the first step, key words and phrases were highlighted that evaluated the business, which helped to construct the representation of the vegan business in the St. Petersburg media. Among them were both assessments of businesses by media resources, and the social actions described in the articles, a description of the identities of entrepreneurs assigned from the media, certain linguistic details that seemed important to me for analysis. In parallel with this, I immediately wrote down the emerging ideas regarding analysis. Further, auxiliary questions, such as “What do these expressions say about business owners?”, “How do media view a given type of business?”, “What situational values ??like place, time, objects, artifacts play a role in shaping a business's presentation”, “What the key action was highlighted in the article?”, “What roles, identities, views, faiths were described in the articles?” All of these questions, which are part of the discourse analysis, help to describe the various aspects presented in the materials, and relate to 6 building tasks: semiotic building, world building, activity building, socioculturally-located identity and relationship building, political building, connection building (Gee, 2005). Such an analysis made it possible to illuminate the main ideas interpreted in the articles and to compose a clear picture of the representation of the vegan business in the media.

4. Results

4.1 Tree of codes and its key categories

Figure 1 shows the complete tree of codes made during the analysis. The highest level of codes consisted of 4 levels, including the smallest codes constructed on the basis of informant phrases.

Figure 1 Tree of codes

Figure 2 shows the key categories identified by open and axial coding: veganism, surroundings, lifestyle, business, and plans and dreams. These categories allow to understand the data structure and formulate the results of the study.

Figure 2 Tree of codes: key categories

4.2 What it is to be vegan: lifestyle of vegan entrepreneurs

Informants telling about what veganism is and what concept they put into it, for the most part, they use the same expressions and have the same meanings. First of all, they define it as a complete rejection of animal products. “This is food, this is diet, this is what I wear, what I walk in, the same thoughts, deeds. Well, that is, try as much as possible not to exploit animals, not to go to various kinds of entertainment venues with animals, not to eat, not to use in clothes, shoes” (Interview 1, shoe store), “This is non-violence to animals, first of all” (Interview 7, producer of healthy confectionery products). They also designate it as a conscious choice and lifestyle: “a conscious choice of some kind of non-violence and unwillingness, or rather, this desire to do as little harm as possible to those around me, including animals” (Interview 5, pizzeria), “This is a way of life, this is a worldview” (Interview 1, shoe store).

Among the reasons for the transition to veganism, informants singled out such as: ethical “I just realized that it seems to me that this is the only right choice. I don't want to take part in the exploitation” (Interview 2, sweets), caused by surroundings “the former of Vita organization gave a push to this” (Interview 1, shoe store), resources “I watched the movie Earthlings and after it I somehow, well, it really got a little overwhelmed” (Interview 7, producer of healthy confectionery products), from subcultures “at that time my knowledge was such that if you are a punk hardcore guy, then you do not need to eat meat to fit the image and I was influenced by this stereotype of” (Interview 5, pizzeria), health reasons “well, the fact that meat has a bad effect on the body, that it's not a living food. that's why I refuse animal products” (Interview 9, producer of healthy confectionery products). The same reasons have been highlighted in a number of studies (McDonald, 2000; Cooper et al., 1985; Fox & Ward, 2008; Greenebaum, 2012; Cole & Morgan, 2011; Greenebaum, 2012; Larsson et al., 2003; McDonald et al., 1999).

Each informant, speaking about his (her) lifestyle, first of all indicated that (s)he was a vegan. “This is of course an integral part of my identity. I can't imagine myself not being a vegan” (Interview 6, bakery). It also corresponds with the study of Greenebaum (2012). It is also the basis of their life. “This is the foundation, so to speak, yes, this is the foundation, because everything around it, as it were, continues to develop” (Interview 1, shoe store). “I understand that if it weren't for veganism, life would have gone completely different” (Interview 2, sweets). “Veganism has firmly entered my life. And the work of protecting animals has become the work of my life” (Interview 4, online store). Veganism already seems inseparable from the person.“It is always with me. It is not just important, but in principle part of me” (Interview 8, cosmetics).

But also, for some of them, veganism is not the thing that they think about. It becomes the ordinary reality of a person in which he or she simply lives. “But, I don't think about it very often, because due to the fact that most of the people I communicate with are vegans, I don't often have to remember that there are still no vegans. Therefore, the rest of the time, when you communicate only with vegans, this topic does not particularly arise in the head, because it is like something ordinary” (Interview 6, bakery). At the same time, when promoting veganism, informants do not use an aggressive and intrusive presentation of information. “Calmly, unobtrusively show the results, show the deed, and show, well, that is, make delicious food, show examples” (Interview 3, network of burger joints and producer of semi-fabricated products).

Most often, they are also surrounded by the vegan community and share the same values: “most of my friends, too, say vegans or vegetarians, or going to veganism anyway” (Interview 5, pizzeria). Relatives are often neutral or respectful of the informant's lifestyle. “Support, relate positively, without judgment” (Interview 2, sweets). One informant helped mom become a vegetarian. “The family at the very beginning reacted very negatively to my choice, but in a few years I changed their position to positive, my mother became a vegetarian” (Interview 11, grocery store and producer of semi-fabricated products). However, not all relatives have a positive attitude towards their lifestyle.“Family has a negative attitude. I have such a traditional family. Which believes that you can't live without meat” (Interview 10, plant-based meat substitute producer). Similar information was obtained in an article by McDonald et al. (1999).

Veganism is developing rapidly, more and more people began to share the same values every year. This can be seen even in the example of the surroundings of informants and their close ones.“My husband is a vegan. He was not a vegan when we met, but then I explained everything to him, and he became a vegan too. ... Further, several of my friends also became vegans, also, for the same reason, mainly because they had been watching me all these years, and sooner or later realized that this, well, was right. Well, also because veganism has become more and more popular” (Interview 6, bakery). Sometimes this influence is expressed by not completing the transition to veganism of surroundings, but the gradual tendency. “My girlfriend, now she eats meat, but she rarely does it. We have been with her for almost a year now. And I think that over time she will cease to eat it” (Interview 3, network of burger joints and producer of semi-fabricated products).

Among other aspects of the lifestyle, informants pointed out self-development, sports, watching films and reading books, spending time with family, they assigned a very large part to work “I almost always feel that I have a business that I don't need to do, and from I'm distracted by all kinds of other things” (Interview 5, pizzeria), as well as such parts of their identity as garbage sorting, hardening practices, the desire to work for myself, possessing certain qualities “I believe that the main thing in life is to be a kind, open and compassionate person” (Interview 10, plant-based meat substitute producer).

4.3 Vegan business in Saint-Petersburg

The first thing I want to note about the business is that it differs from other ordinary businesses, as the informants themselves note. They do not place money at the forefront, but an ethical component. “I don't know a single person who would conduct an ethical business who would just want to make money” (Interview 2, sweets).

4.3.1 Business creation and purpose of the opening

Among the main reasons for creating a business, most of them highlighted the lack of these products on the Russian market. Corresponds to ideas of Crimarco et al. (2019). It can be seen on the situation with shoe market:“A lot of food, enough, enough faux fur, but there are no qualitative shoes” (Interview 1, shoe store). As well as in the cosmetics market:“There was immediately a demand for it. In those years, it was a completely undeveloped niche, and we quickly rose” (Interview 8, cosmetics). Another reason was their hobby, and then it began to bring them income. “The fact is that I love this sweets very much, but I can't eat them because they are not ethical, and at some point, I remembered how I did them when I was little and I realized that it's very easy to replace them with plant-based, and I tried and realized that wow, I did them” (Interview 2, sweets). Among other important reasons, informants noted the desire to "share" with others their products, originally manufactured only for themselves and their close ones. “She made the chocolate herself at home, completely in love with him. All my friends and acquaintances fell in love with him, too, and I decided that this should not be hidden from people and decided to share with everyone. So, I created a VKontakte group and began to cook like that for everyone. That is, I did it because of the need to share, really wanted to share, so I did” (Interview 7, healthy confectionery products). But always, for all these reasons for starting a business, it is worthwhile to show non-vegans alternatives to animal products and promote veganism. “I decided to do what I like, protect animals. The most important thing was to introduce people to vegan food, and here, a vegan store was an ideal job” (Interview 4, online store).

4.3.2 Why do vegans open vegan businesses: goals and missions

As mentioned above, each of the vegan entrepreneurs, one way or another, created a business to promote veganism. Speaking about the subparagraphs of promoting this lifestyle, informants highlighted primarily the desire to reduce the consumption of animal products. “My goal, my mission so to speak, well, in general, what I strive for is, of course, to reduce the consumption of animals, food, and leather industry, so to speak” (Interview 1, shoe store); “We want to work with a much wider audience of people, these are flexitarians, these are people who empathize with animals, empathize with the environment, but they are not yet ready to abandon their usual way of life, in terms of some kind of eating habits. Our goal is to make flexitarianism generally recognizable in Russia in general, so that people understand that it is not necessary to give up everything all at once, one can gradually switch to a more ethical way of life and nutrition” (Interview 10, plant-based meat substitute producer). One of the informants placed a great emphasis on health. “I'm for the majority of people to switch to veganism, but with the condition, yes, so that their health does not suffer” (Interview 9, producer of healthy confectionery products).

Next is the desire to show an alternative to the usual most of the products and goods. “The goal is to show that vegan products, desserts, without the exploitation of animals, can be tasty, and even tastier than traditional ones, and also that food without sugar and flour can be tasty” (Interview 7, healthy confectionery products). “So that as many people as possible like our product line. This, again, is probably related to the issue of the spread of veganism. I want as many people as possible to switch to such cosmetics without cruelty, and yes, this is the moment of propaganda. Creating the brand, I wanted to emphasize that there are, well, vegan remedies and they are just as cool and useful as ordinary ones” (Interview 8, cosmetics).

And in general change the Russian mentality, which will be turned towards the vegan lifestyle. “Therefore, the goal is to change at least the Russian mentality” (Interview 1, shoe store). As the creator of the bakery briefly put it, "a vegan cake in every home, of course. A vegan world" (Interview 6, bakery). “To show people that there can be a place in the world where garbage will be sorted, where delicious food will be prepared, food that will not contain animal products, that you can eat, that you will be welcome there” (Interview 5, pizzeria). Speaking about the approach to promoting veganism, informants always specified a non-violent, unobtrusive and calm way of promoting.“We are trying to promote veganism not in a radical way, but loyal” (Interview 11, shop and producer). Thus, each of the informants in one way or another spoke about the purpose of their business as a way to promote veganism. And in general, the goals of the business show that they all stem from a lifestyle.

4.3.3 Entrepreneurship as a part of lifestyle or just a business?

Answering the sub-question about what is the relationship between entrepreneurship and the lifestyle of entrepreneurs, they somehow touched on this topic in such matters as what they do most often, what are their plans for the future, they also said that these are very strongly connected parts of life for them. “Well, yes, that's right, because everything is intertwined and you really know now, but because it happens when you start doing something of your own, it really takes up a huge part of your thoughts. And the thought is that it is a reflection of your future actions, well, as if life is becoming different, it is changing, because you are already changing, and the environment around you is changing too” (Interview 1, shoe store). One informant noted that she considers her business a matter of her life, and does not even consider it to be her job, because it has become an integral part of her life and her identity. “This is the thing of my life. I love my job so much. I love her because she combines at once, she combines all these things, which I consider important for myself in life. I have an ethical business, this is a business that allows me to realize my ambitions. This is something that, I don't know, I do every day and I don't get tired of it at all, I just adore my work. I'll never change it and will always work in the field of food innovation and yes, in the field of ethical marketing” (Interview 10, a plant-based meat substitute producer). “Of course as an advancement, but I regard my life as an advancement, I don't know, I don't have anything non-vegan in my life, that's why my business is also vegan” (Interview 6, bakery). Accordingly, even the informants themselves talk about the relation of their lifestyle and entrepreneurial activity, when one cannot exist without the other.

And in general, they don't evaluate their business as work, for most of them it's “rather a useful hobby that helps promote veganism” (Interview 4, online store). Moreover, they point out that this is just something that brings pleasure. “I just live my life and do what I thought would be fun to do and what to do in my power. I just continued to do what I wanted” (Interview 5, pizzeria). The same is true for the producer of cosmetics, for which business has become a matter of life: “I understand that as if I could not exist without him, he would be without me. I do not personalize myself with him, this is not my brainchild, but it is like a matter of my life, to which I am ready to pay attention. And this is a kind of work for me that does not turn my life into a groundhog day” (Interview 8, cosmetics). And since a vegan lifestyle also means consuming vegan goods, and our informants are owners of vegan businesses, we can call them prosumers (Toffler, 1980).

4.3.4 Possibilities, difficulties and competition

Each informant noted that the vegan business has a lot of opportunities and a lot of potential. Now quite a large number of niches are not closed, in some there is even no competition at all. And due to the growing interest in veganism, “opportunities right now, in fact, more and more. As it grows more and more, people are more interested” (Interview 7, cosmetics) and growing demand “in any case, it has become easier for the vegan business to grow, because there have been a large number of vegans lately. You can take any field of activity, the manufacture of products, cafes, and customers will always be” (Interview 4, online store), this is a rather promising business.

In the course of doing business, informants, one way or another, had some difficulties. For the most part, they mentioned troubles encountered in any business, but most informants did not have a sufficient amount of experience behind them, and therefore, some had difficulties. “Again, due to the fact that we are entrepreneurs without experience, we very often lost money like this” (Interview 10, plant-based meat substitute producer). And in the field of vegan shops (this type of business is represented almost the most), entrepreneurs are faced with great competition. “It seems that opening a store is simple, you publish goods and people will come in, but no, since there are a lot of stores now, you have to remind yourself almost every day, and this is the most difficult thing” (Interview 4, online store). In addition, stereotypes to some extent interfere with the vegan business, but showing a decent quality product, buyers have doubts. “Because there is a stereotype in people's heads, I noticed that what's connected with the confectionery, oh, how do you make a cake without eggs, and how do you do without milk? After all, this is completely unnecessary, that is, it turns out the same awesome cake, or the same sweets” (Interview 2, sweets).