The Relationship between Green Innovation, Social Entrepreneurship, and Sustainable Development

Abstract

Economic growth is one of the important objectives of economic policy due to the beneficial effects it has on employment and economic well-being. The work carried out in the last few decades has highlighted the roles that entrepreneurship and innovation play in promoting this objective. However, the environmental deterioration resulting from policies implemented to stimulate growth has led to considerations of other objectives that are more compatible with the defense of the environment, such as sustainable development. Therefore, it is important to determine the factors that stimulate them. This paper considers traditional and social entrepreneurship and innovations and green innovation. The effect of institutions as generators of legal and economic environments on both types of entrepreneurship is contemplated. On the other hand, considering the possibility of “bidirectional causality”, the relationship between both types of entrepreneurship and institutions is also analyzed. This will allow us to design measures aimed at stimulating sustainable development. The objective of this paper is to analyze these relationships through two estimates: first, an analysis of the relationship between both types of entrepreneurship and innovations and sustainable development and second, the relationship between social and traditional entrepreneurship and institutions. In both cases, the path coefficient of each of them is compared with respect to the final objective, which would be useful when designing economic policies. Empirical analysis is carried out, producing an estimation of the structural equation modeling (SEM) model using the partial least squares (PLS) technique in the case of 20 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.

Effects of the pandemic crisis on entrepreneurship and sustainable development

“…The environmental situation of the economies has led to the need to include this problem in the analysis of economic growth. In this sense, there are two opposite approaches: approaches that consider that environmental restrictions do not affect growth and those that, on the contrary, affirm that the lack of natural resources will end up impeding economic growth ( Acs et al, 2018 , Demirel and Kesidou, 2019 , Galindo-Martín et al, 2020a ). Those in accordance with the second position should rethink the objective of economic growth to try to carry out an economic activity that does not compromise the situation of future generations.…”

“…Therefore, instead of the traditional objective of growth, this paper considers the objective of sustainable development. In achieving this objective, entrepreneurship is also a factor to consider since actions aimed at improving the environment represent a business opportunity ( Galindo-Martín et al, 2020a , Hall et al, 2010 , Öykü İyigün, 2015 ).…”

Interactive Effects of Business Environment Assessment and Institutional Programs on Opportunity Entrepreneurship

“…The impact of entrepreneurship goes beyond the economic and the social; entrepreneurship effectively engages in addressing environmental issues as well [3]. The notion of "green innovation" is, therefore, an extension of the definition of entrepreneurship which is considered as a social agent that reacts to market imperfection [4]. Entrepreneurship is also considered a byproduct of institutional inefficiency and such a conceptualization is particularly relevant when it comes to issues of sustainability.…”

“…The gap between environmental goals and the reality is still left largely unfilled and presents as an opportunity for entrepreneurs. Opportunity-driven entrepreneurship is a series of reactive or proactive behaviors to such demands [4].…”

Identification of the Factors That Affect the Environmental Administrative Burden for Businesses

“…Porter and Van der Linde [19] suggested that an important issue in measuring net compliance costs of environmental regulations are also the benefits from the innovation induced by it [58], which, however, varies across sectors. Competitive enterprises can address environmental problems in an innovative way, which can stimulate sustainable development [59] and simultaneously reflect in lower compliance costs of environmental regulations. The formula for success must include innovative solutions that promote both environmental and industrial competitiveness in different economic sectors.…”