Research on Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Economic Development

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainability has become integral to any future-oriented entrepreneurial activity (Salamzadeh et al., 2020). In fact, entrepreneurs can initiate and improve levels of sustainable economic development on multiple levels, including that of the individual (e.g., Hammawa & Hashim, 2016), team (e.g., Paramba et al., 2023), firm (e.g., Soleimani et al., 2023), community (e.g., Murniati et al., 2021), city (e.g., Dana et al., 2022), nation (e.g., Yakubu et al., 2022), region (e.g., Gu & Wang,  2022), and even globe (e.g., Kurotimi et al., 2017). Such a mandate deserves more attention from entrepreneurship scholars in various contexts with different levels of socioeconomic development.

As explained by Forje (2018), knowledge of entrepreneurship is at the core of sustainable economic development. This argument is already supported by seminal works of entrepreneurship scholars such as Kirzner, Schumpeter, and Knight. In addition, Gu and Wang (2022) have constructed an index for conceptualizing the phenomenon of sustainable entrepreneurship. It is promising that the concept of “sustainable economic development” has already been measured in various contexts. For instance, Sajuyigbe and Fadeyibi (2017) examined the concept in Nigeria, Naushad (2021) in Saudi Arabia, Mathur et al. (2018) in India, Jin et al. (2023) in China, and Rahman et al. (2023) in Japan. Zakari and Oluwaseyi Musibau (2023) devoted their attention to sustainable economic development in OECD countries. Also promising is that all the mentioned studies investigated the concept in question through an entrepreneurial lens.

Some recent studies have also referred to the sustainable economic development–entrepreneurship nexus. For instance, Ali et al. (2023) explored the role of bioenergy in an emerging economy. Moreover, Kaftan et al. (2023) studied the concept in the post-COVID-19 era. Chursin et al. (2023) investigated the concept at an organizational level, a field less scrutinized by previous entrepreneurship scholars.

To summarize, sustainable economic development conceptually extends beyond sustainable economic growth and includes qualitative and quantitative increases in various variables (Gryshova et al., 2019). These variables have already been partially elucidated in the literature related to economic development; however, the literature on sustainable economic development needs more contributions, especially those clarifying its connection with the domain of entrepreneurship. Therefore, this Special Issue is focused on exploring this phenomenon at multiple levels and through diverse lenses.

The suggested themes include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Exploring and scrutinizing the sustainable economic development of entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial teams, firms, communities, and nations;
• Exploring and investigating the entrepreneurship literature and revealing its relevance to sustainable development and the SDGs;
• Exploring the overlap among the three areas, i.e., entrepreneurship, economic development, and sustainability;
• Conducting [multiple] case studies to reveal how sustainable economic development can be realized.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

References

1. Ali, S., Yan, Q., Hu, J., Irfan, M., & Sun, H. (2023). Can bioenergy act as an entrepreneurial opportunity for the sustainable economic development of an emerging economy? A socio-technical approach. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 30(43), 98106-98126.
2. Chursin, A., Chupina, Z., Ostrovskaya, A., & Boginsky, A. (2023). The Creation of Fundamentally New Products as a Factor of Organizations’ Sustainable Economic Development. Sustainability, 15(12), 9747.
3. Dana, L. P., Salamzadeh, A., Hadizadeh, M., Heydari, G., & Shamsoddin, S. (2022). Urban entrepreneurship and sustainable businesses in smart cities: Exploring the role of digital technologies. Sustainable Technology and Entrepreneurship, 1(2), 100016.
4. Forje, L. C. (2018). Entrepreneurship knowledge: the core of sustainable economic development. Journal of Emerging Trends in Economics and Management Sciences, 9(5), 304-311.
5. Gryshova, I., Shabatura, T., Girdzijauskas, S., Streimikiene, D., Ciegis, R., & Griesiene, I. (2019). The Paradox of Value and Economic Bubbles: New Insights for Sustainable Economic Development. Sustainability, 11(24), 6888.
6. Gu, W., & Wang, J. (2022). Research on index construction of sustainable entrepreneurship and its impact on economic growth. Journal of Business Research, 142, 266-276.
7. Hammawa, Y. M., & Hashim, N. B. (2016). Women-micro entrepreneurs and sustainable economic development in Nigeria. Journal of Business and Management Volume, 18, 27-36.
8. Jin, H., Li, H., Zhao, T., & Pang, Y. (2023). Role of the sharing economy in the achievement of energy efficiency and sustainable economic development: Evidence from China. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 8(1), 100296.
9. Kaftan, V., Kandalov, W., Molodtsov, I., Sherstobitova, A., & Strielkowski, W. (2023). Socio-Economic Stability and Sustainable Development in the Post-COVID Era: Lessons for the Business and Economic Leaders. Sustainability, 15(4), 2876.
10. Kurotimi, M. F., Franklin, A., Aladei, G., & Helen, O. (2017). Entrepreneurship education as a 21st century strategy for economic growth and sustainable development. International Journal of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, 11(9), 2242-2253.
11. Mathur, S., Shukla, A., & Kukreja, J. (2018). Millennipreneurs’: The Emerging Paradigm to Sustainable Economic Development in India. Amity Journal of Entrepreneurship, 3(1), 35-65.
12. Murniati, M., Maski, G., Noor, I., & Ekawaty, M. (2021). Entrepreneurship in the tourism industry: Implication on sustainable economic development. In Environmental, social, and governance perspectives on economic development in Asia (Vol. 29, pp. 137-156). Emerald Publishing Limited.
13. Paramba, J. N., Salamzadeh, A., Karuthedath, S., & Rahman, M. M. (2023). Intellectual capital and sustainable startup performance: A bibliometric analysis. Heritage and Sustainable Development, 5(1), 19-32.
14. Rahman, M. M., Uddin, M. A., & Masaru, I. (2023). Decomposition analysis of entrepreneurial activities in Japan: An international comparison. Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, 13(1), 10.
15. Sajuyigbe, A. S., & Fadeyibi, I. O. (2017). Women entrepreneurship and sustainable economic development: Evidence from Nigeria. Journal of Entrepreneurship, Business and Economics, 5(2), 19-46.
16. Salamzadeh, A., Hadizadeh, M., Rastgoo, N., Rahman, M. M., & Radfard, S. (2022). Sustainability-oriented innovation foresight in international new technology based firms. Sustainability, 14(20), 13501.
17. Soleimani, M., Mollaei, E., Beinabaj, M. H., & Salamzadeh, A. (2023). Evaluating the enablers of green entrepreneurship in circular economy: Organizational enablers in focus. Sustainability, 15(14), 11253.
18. Yakubu, B. N., Salamzadeh, A., Bouzari, P., Ebrahimi, P., & Fekete-Farkas, M. (2022). Identifying the key factors of sustainable entrepreneurship in the Nigerian food industry: The role of media availability. Entrepreneurial Business & Economics Review, 10(2).

Prof. Dr. Leo-Paul Dana
Dr. Aidin Salamzadeh
Guest Editors

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• sustainable entrepreneurship
• sustainability
• sustainable economic development
• entrepreneurship