SMEs’ Intention towards Sustainable Entrepreneurship

Abstract

Environmental degradation could be considered as one of the negative consequences of entrepreneurial activities. As such, entrepreneurs are urged to be proactive in resolving environmental problems through sustainable entrepreneurship. However, this new practice has not been fully accepted and exercised by many SMEs. Moreover, the studies pertaining to sustainable entrepreneurship are also very scarce in the literature. Therefore, this paper was conducted to investigate the contexts that directly and indirectly influence the SMEs owner-managers' intention towards sustainable entrepreneurship. A model was developed based on Theory of Planned Behaviour and Entrepreneurial Event Model. This study surveyed 404 SMEs in Malaysia by using selfadministered questionnaires. It found that owner-managers' intention towards sustainable entrepreneurship was rather encouraging. In addition, factors such as positive sustainable value, favourable sustainable attitude, supporting social norm and sufficient governmental legislation directly increased the intention towards sustainable entrepreneurs. Moreover, those factors were also found to indirectly influence the intention through individual's perception. As such, this paper pointed out some critical factors that should be emphasized in promoting and developing sustainable entrepreneurship. Some recommendations for future studies have also been given at the last part of this paper.

Sustainable Entrepreneurship in the Agriculture Sector: The Nexus of the Triple Bottom Line Measurement Approach

“…The definition of sustainability is the general agreement to retain a balance between economic, environmental, and social factors on an equal and harmonious basis to meet current needs without affecting the needs of future generations [19]. According to reports of the World Commission on Environment Development (WCED) (initially in 1934), in 1987 [20,21], Schumpeter elaborated on the innovation process of creative destruction [7,22,23], whether it be climate change, biodiversity, or water shortages, in which entrepreneurs are constantly innovating based on environmental challenges. These degradations have indeed become a fuse for the entrepreneurial creativity of the future.…”

“…As sustainable entrepreneurship studies have progressed [6,20,23,[32][33][34][35][36] and as research continues to deepen, sustainable entrepreneurship has become a synergistic combination of entrepreneurial programs and sustainable development. Consideration of the principles of sustainable development leads to the use of natural resources that reflects the balance between profit, social goals, and ecological goals.…”

“…Therefore, business innovation must ensure the sustainability of benefits without neglecting the needs of future generations. Table 1 demonstrates the extension of the concept of sustainable entrepreneurship which explains the development of college students' sustainable entrepreneurship intention [15,28,41] to put the sustainable entrepreneurial intention framework into professional practices [9,20,24]. [43], generally intention refers to the mental state in which an individual directs attention and action towards a particular goal or objective to achieve a specific aim.…”

Sustainable entrepreneurship intention among university students in Uganda: A conceptual paper

“…Social sustainability involves the ability of entrepreneurs to be answerable to different stakeholders such as the community, workers, suppliers, customers as well as the government voluntarily (Lu and Taylor, 2016;Majid et al, 2017;Moshina, 2015;Nevia, 2015). The social dimension of sustainable entrepreneurship requires university students to fulfil their responsibilities towards the stakeholders and the social setting in which they intend to operate as they undertake entrepreneurial actions (Ciasullo and Troisi, 2013).…”

Altruism towards others and sustainability intention of small business owners

“…Previous studies indicate several determinants of sustainability intention for example, Koe and Majid (2014) revealed that socio-cultural factors such as time orientation, sustainability orientation and social norm significantly influence sustainability intention. In addition, Majid et al (2017) reported that positive sustainable value, favourable sustainable attitude, supporting social norms, and sufficient government legislation positively affect sustainability intention of entrepreneurs. Bădulescu et al (2014) further revealed that business students have a positive attitude towards sustainability intention.…”