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This study explores the key determinants of intermediary performance in promoting corporate sustainability in small and medium‐sized enterprises in Africa. Despite being a critical link in the delivery of sustainability support services to small and medium‐sized enterprises, intermediaries have only received limited research attention. Research exploring intermediaries of corporate sustainability in small and medium‐sized enterprises have focused broadly on their roles but narrowly on performance. Those exploring intermediary performance have often focused on larger companies, sometimes, neglecting the specifics of small and medium‐sized enterprises, especially in African countries. Improving intermediary performance in promoting corporate sustainability requires an in‐depth understanding of the factors that determine their performance. As a qualitative study, interview responses from 32 experts working in National Cleaner Production Centres in four African countries were analysed using inductive thematic approach. The findings suggest that programme constraints, external profile, small and medium‐sized enterprises context, impact strategy, and service networks are the key determinants of intermediary performance in promoting corporate sustainability in small and medium‐sized enterprises. These determinants facilitate and inhibit intermediaries’ ability to promote corporate sustainability in small and medium‐sized enterprises. The implications concern the need for intermediaries and small and medium‐sized enterprises to manage these determinants in promoting corporate sustainability.

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The purpose of this study is to explore the determinants of the performance of environmental support programmes for small businesses. With growing interests in promoting environmental sustainability among small businesses, developing a better understanding of environmental support programmes has become critical. Previous studies have investigated specific cases of environmental support programmes for small businesses. However, their findings are yet to be galvanised in a manner that improves our understanding of environmental support programmes for small businesses. This study addresses the gap in the literature by systematically reviewing 25 key journal articles and synthesizing their main findings. The findings from the deductive thematic analysis revealed that support provider/sponsor, client context, programme scope, capacity development, complementary support, service delivery network, and regulation influence the performance of environmental support programmes for small businesses. These findings highlight the ongoing efforts in developing and developed countries to promote environmental practices in small businesses. We, therefore, encourage sustainability and small business researchers to go beyond the design and implementation and focus more attention on how to improve the performance of environmental support programmes for small businesses.