Confluence of sustainable entrepreneurship, innovation, and digitalization in SMEs
Open accessAbstract
Entrepreneurship has been the focus of business research because of its ability to drive positive change and increase resilience in the economy. Sustainable entrepreneurship is the latest approach that links traditional entrepreneurship with triple-bottom-line principles and has gained institutional support since the UN approved the “2030 Development Agenda.” However, the field of sustainable entrepreneurship is relatively new and continually evolving, with an ongoing debate about its definition, boundaries, and drivers. A model was designed using different estimation techniques, to explore how SMEs and start-ups can adopt long-term sustainability, innovation, and digitalization strategies. This study used data from the Flash Eurobarometer 486 gathered through interviews with 16.365 SMEs in the EU27 and 12 non-EU countries. The findings show that most entrepreneurs do not express interest in a pro-growth agenda, which limits the reach of pro-entrepreneurship and pro-innovation discourse. Furthermore, firms’ youth affect sustainability, not innovation and digitalization dynamics.
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Through product innovation, SMEs can develop new goods or services or improve existing ones to meet the needs of an ever-evolving market.
“Research (Avelar et al., 2024 andZhang, 2022) explained that through product innovation, SMEs can develop new goods or services or improve existing ones to meet the needs of an ever-evolving market.”
From Innovation as A Driver of SMEs Sustainability: A Systematic Review of the Literature (2025) · cites this paper as Avelar et al., 2024
Product innovation is one of the key factors that can encourage the sustainability of SMEs.
“Product Innovation Product innovation is one of the key factors that can encourage the sustainability of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).”
From Innovation as A Driver of SMEs Sustainability: A Systematic Review of the Literature (2025) · cites this paper as Avelar et al., 2024
Process innovation has a significant impact on the sustainability of SMEs.
“process innovation was also found to have a significant impact on the sustainability of SMEs”
From Innovation as A Driver of SMEs Sustainability: A Systematic Review of the Literature (2025) · cites this paper as Avelar et al., 2024
Product innovation, process innovation, marketing innovation, technological innovation, and business model innovation can strengthen the position of SMEs in facing sustainability challenges, increasing competitiveness, and making a positive contribution to the environment and surrounding communities.
“Product innovation, process innovation, marketing innovation, technological innovation, and business model innovation can strengthen the position of SMEs in facing sustainability challenges, increasing competitiveness, and making a positive contribution to the environment and surrounding communities.”
From Innovation as A Driver of SMEs Sustainability: A Systematic Review of the Literature (2025) · cites this paper as Avelar et al., 2024
Product innovation aims to improve product quality and create added value that can provide a competitive advantage in the market.
“This innovation process not only aims to improve product quality but also to create added value that can provide a competitive advantage in the market.”
From Innovation as A Driver of SMEs Sustainability: A Systematic Review of the Literature (2025) · cites this paper as Avelar et al., 2024
Cites
Environmental Policy and Directed Technological Change: Evidence from the European Carbon Market
Calel, R., & Dechezleprêtre, A. (2016) · Review of Economics and Statistics · doi:10.1162/rest_a_00470 · Cited by 1,147 · see citing works
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Innovation as A Driver of SMEs Sustainability: A Systematic Review of the Literature
Latifannisa, N., Wardi, Y., & Marwan (2025) · BASKARA: Journal of Business and Entrepreneurship · doi:10.54268/baskara.v7i2.26926
- Authors
- Avelar, S., Borges-Tiago, T., Almeida, A., & Tiago, F.
- Affiliations
- Universidade dos Açores (PT)
- Corresponding author
- Avelar, Sónia
- Venue
- Journal of Business Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2024-01
- Volume
- 170
- Pages
- 114346
- ISSN
- 0148-2963 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4387701405
- Cited by
- 154
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 46 · 2025: 61 · 2024: 45 · 2023: 2
- FWCI
- 37.63
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Business Research (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão, Universidade de Lisboa
- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (UIDB/00685/2020, UIDB/04521/2020)
- Universidade da Madeira
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Management of Technology and Innovation › Entrepreneurship Studies and Influences
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Management of Technology and Innovation › Sustainability and Innovation in Business
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Environmental Sustainability in Business
- Keywords
- sustainable entrepreneurship, innovation, digitalization, small and medium-sized enterprises, startups, triple bottom line, youth
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