Barriers to sustainability for small and medium enterprises in the framework of sustainable development—Literature review

Abstract

The objective of this article is to analyze the barriers faced by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) when implementing initiatives for sustainable development. For this purpose, a search equation was designed, and the 50 highest cited articles from the search results in Scopus between years 2013 and 2017 were reviewed. The selected criteria for the article analysis were article name, article year, country, continent, journal, Scimago Journal Rank, Scimago Quartiles, Affiliated Universities, abstract, and keywords. Among the main results, 175 barriers to sustainability for SMEs were identified. The barriers that appeared most frequently were lack of resources, the high initial capital cost of implementing sustainability measures, and lack of expertise. At the end of the article, a proposal is included which shows the 175 identified barriers, classified by “sector,” “sustainability tool,” and “internal/external” which can aid in new qualitative and quantitative studies of barriers to sustainability in SMEs.

An analysis of environmental sustainability in small & medium‐sized enterprises: Patterns and trends

“…To compare, Alvarez et al () used keywords such as “SMEs barriers, innovation, SMEs, sustainability, and sustainable development” and investigated barriers that were most frequent in SMEs. They took 46 of the top cited articles for developing research and broke down what country the research oriented.…”

“…Alvarez et al () also conducted an analysis study that focused strictly on barriers to sustainability in small and medium enterprises. They found 46 topmost cited articles and analyzed the top barriers faced by SMEs when starting initiatives for environmental sustainability.…”

“…Previous analyses of the literature studies are limited in their scope of analysis as Albertini's () meta‐analysis was focused on the financial aspect of sustainability. Johnson and Schaltegger () studied sustainability tools, and Alvarez et al () only investigated barriers for sustainability by reviewing the 46 top‐most cited articles. Parker et al () had a broader analysis by looking at both motivations and barriers in SMEs sustainability effort, yet their analysis was limited to the review of 50 articles.…”

Eco‐innovation and firm growth in the circular economy: Evidence from European small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises

“…Evidence shows that lack of financial resources is a major deterrent for SMEs' engagement with EI (Álvarez Jaramillo, Zartha Sossa, & Orozco Mendoza, ; Caldera, Desha, & Dawes, ; Ghisetti, Mancinelli, Mazzanti, & Zoli, ). In the absence of internal financial resources, SMEs are forced to consider external finance, which is often limited in availability, further constraining the innovation and growth of SMEs (Revest & Sapio, ).…”

The environmental value and impact of the Maker movement—Insights from a cross‐case analysis of European maker initiatives

“…Interestingly, two of the three main barriers to sustainability as identified by Álvarez Jaramillo, Zartha Sossa, and Orozco Mendoza () in their comprising literature review, being lack of resources, the high initial capital cost of implementing sustainability measures, and lack of expertise, seem to apply to maker initiatives. Prototypes tackling environmental issues evolve around available personal expertise or knowledge in the maker community; the prototypes are produced low cost with the tools available in the maker space.…”