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Sustainability
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Innovations in Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Engine of Transformative Economic Development
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Innovations in Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Engine of Transformative Economic Development

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2026 | Viewed by 2586

Editors

Prof. Dr. Byungchul Choi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
HUFS Business School, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul 21450, Republic of Korea
Interests: corporate Innovation; digital transformation; high-tech venture; talent management for radial innovation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Shufeng (Simon) Xiao

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Division of Business Administration, Sookmyung Women’s University, Seoul 04310, Republic of Korea
Interests: emerging multinational enterprises; institutional theory in strategic management; entrepreneurship and innovation, and foreign subsidiary management in emerging markets, with a particular focus on China and India
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Woo Jin Lee

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Graduate School of Global Entrepreneurship, Kookmin University, Seoul 02707, Republic of Korea
Interests: entrepreneurship; entrepreneurship education; ambidextrous organization

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue explores how innovations in sustainable entrepreneurship act as catalysts for transformative economic development. We welcome theoretical, empirical, and policy-oriented studies that illuminate mechanisms linking entrepreneurial action to inclusive growth, resilience, and environmental stewardship. Priority topics include global entrepreneurship and cross-country comparisons; economic performance and ESG integration; entrepreneurial ecosystem design, governance, and measurement; entrepreneurial background and startup performance; prior entrepreneurial experience and venture success; and digital entrepreneurship, including platform dynamics, AI-enabled business models, and data governance. We particularly encourage research that connects micro-level founder capabilities to meso-level ecosystems and macro-level outcomes, employs rigorous multi-method designs (e.g., experiments, field data, natural language/ML analytics), and provides actionable implications for investors, policymakers, and educators. Studies addressing emerging economies, mission-driven ventures, and just transition challenges are highly valued. Short research notes, replications, and open datasets/software that advance cumulative knowledge are also welcome. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses are especially encouraged, too.

Dr. Byungchul Choi
Prof. Dr. Shufeng (Simon) Xiao
Dr. Woo Jin Lee
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • global entrepreneurship
  • entrepreneurial ecosystem
  • entrepreneurial background of startup
  • digital entrepreneurship
  • ESG entrepreneurship

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 864 KB  
Article
Business Model Innovation and Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Component-Level Evidence from Multi-Treatment Double/Debiased Machine Learning
by Wonjoo Yun
Sustainability 2026, 18(12), 5962; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18125962 - 10 Jun 2026
Viewed by 322
Abstract
Sustainable entrepreneurship depends on a firm’s ability to turn opportunities into durable systems of value creation, value proposition, and value capture. Prior studies link business model innovation (BMI) to firm performance, but the evidence is largely correlational and treats BMI as a single [...] Read more.
Sustainable entrepreneurship depends on a firm’s ability to turn opportunities into durable systems of value creation, value proposition, and value capture. Prior studies link business model innovation (BMI) to firm performance, but the evidence is largely correlational and treats BMI as a single aggregate construct, leaving it unclear which component most directly converts business model change into sustainable innovation outcomes. Using firm-level data on 2798 Korean firms from the 2022 Entrepreneurship Survey, this study adopts a progressive empirical design that moves from ordinary least squares (OLS) to Double/Debiased Machine Learning (DML), and from aggregate BMI to a multi-treatment specification of its three components. The findings indicate that aggregate BMI shows a positive baseline association with innovation performance. When the three components are modeled jointly, value proposition emerges as the most consistently and strongly associated component of sales-based innovation performance, whereas value creation and value capture display weaker and more conditional patterns. The value proposition association is stronger in B2C firms. This study advances sustainable entrepreneurship research by identifying customer-facing value articulation as the BMI component most consistently associated with sustained innovation performance under observable-confounder adjustment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovations in Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Engine of Transformative Economic Development)
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28 pages, 840 KB  
Article
The Impact of Green Finance Policies on Corporate Green Innovation Efficiency: An Empirical Analysis Based on a Difference-in-Differences Model
by Yan Zhang and Pengfei Shi
Sustainability 2026, 18(12), 5832; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18125832 - 8 Jun 2026
Viewed by 205
Abstract
As a core policy tool for promoting green economic transformation and high-quality development, green finance has significantly optimized the allocation of resources for corporate green innovation, thereby inevitably influencing the efficiency of green innovation in the manufacturing sector. Using the “Green Finance Policy [...] Read more.
As a core policy tool for promoting green economic transformation and high-quality development, green finance has significantly optimized the allocation of resources for corporate green innovation, thereby inevitably influencing the efficiency of green innovation in the manufacturing sector. Using the “Green Finance Policy Pilot Program” as a case study, this study employs a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) model and robustness tests to examine the impact of green finance policies on the green innovation efficiency of Chinese manufacturing firms. The results indicate that green finance policies help enhance the green innovation efficiency of manufacturing firms. Mechanism analysis reveals that green finance policies enhance firms’ green innovation efficiency by alleviating financing constraints for green innovation, improving the quality of environmental information disclosure, and promoting collaborative green technology innovation. Heterogeneity results indicate that the positive correlation between green finance policies and firms’ green innovation efficiency is particularly pronounced among large-scale firms and firms in regions with high levels of green development. This study not only enriches the literature on the micro-level effects of green finance but also provides valuable insights for governments and firms seeking to enhance green innovation efficiency. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovations in Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Engine of Transformative Economic Development)
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26 pages, 1587 KB  
Article
Achieving Sustainable Development Through Structural Tools: Institutional Configurations and Pathways
by Jinghuai She, Meng Sun and Haoyu Yan
Sustainability 2026, 18(4), 1736; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18041736 - 8 Feb 2026
Viewed by 559
Abstract
Sustainable development is a central objective for contemporary firms. It involves both long-term organizational resilience and improved environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. Structural tools that support long-term stability and strategic continuity play a critical role in achieving these goals. However, their adoption [...] Read more.
Sustainable development is a central objective for contemporary firms. It involves both long-term organizational resilience and improved environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. Structural tools that support long-term stability and strategic continuity play a critical role in achieving these goals. However, their adoption depends on the interaction between formal and informal institutional forces. Drawing on institutional theory, this study applies fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to data from Chinese listed firms. We examine how four institutional dimensions jointly shape structural tool adoption: governance structure, intergenerational heterogeneity, institutional and cultural context, and market-driven and mimetic forces. Structural tools facilitate governance consolidation and leadership succession, which are essential for sustainable development. Our findings show that no single institutional condition is sufficient to trigger adoption. Instead, multiple conditions must combine to enable firms to implement structural tools. The seven configurations identified reveal diverse governance paths across different institutional contexts, including complementary, substitutive, and conflicting relationships between formal and informal institutions. We also find clear causal asymmetry: the conditions that promote adoption differ fundamentally from those that inhibit it. Structural tools provide an institutional foundation for balancing short-term pressures with long-term sustainability commitments. Firms lacking these mechanisms face greater risks of leadership succession failure and long-term instability. Additional analyses using mean difference tests and fixed-effects models further confirm that structural tool adoption significantly enhances both sustainable development capacity and ESG performance. Overall, this study advances institutional theory. It shows how the interaction between formal and informal institutions shapes governance choices. It also explains how governance structures are linked to sustainable development outcomes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovations in Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Engine of Transformative Economic Development)
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25 pages, 1237 KB  
Article
Entrepreneurial Signals and External Financing: How Investment Discourse Sentiment Moderates the Effects of Patents and Market Orientation
by Lanfang An, Shinhyung Kang and Woo Jin Lee
Sustainability 2026, 18(1), 421; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18010421 - 1 Jan 2026
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 909
Abstract
Existing research suggests that information asymmetry remains a core barrier to entrepreneurial firms’ external financing. Drawing on signaling theory and a signal cost perspective, this study examines how two key entrepreneurial signals—high-cost patent signals and low-cost international market orientation (IMO) signals—shape the scale [...] Read more.
Existing research suggests that information asymmetry remains a core barrier to entrepreneurial firms’ external financing. Drawing on signaling theory and a signal cost perspective, this study examines how two key entrepreneurial signals—high-cost patent signals and low-cost international market orientation (IMO) signals—shape the scale of firms’ external financing in Korea. We argue that although both signals are positively associated with financing scale, their effectiveness is differentially conditioned by investment discourse sentiment. Specifically, positive discourse sentiment amplifies the financing effects of both signals, whereas negative discourse sentiment attenuates the effect of IMO but strengthens the impact of patent signals, indicating that in pessimistic contexts investors rely more heavily on high-cost, externally verifiable signals when valuing and allocating capital. Using data from the Korean Venture Business Survey (2021–2023) and investment discourse sentiment measures constructed via LDA topic modeling and dictionary-based sentiment extraction, our empirical analyses support these hypotheses. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovations in Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Engine of Transformative Economic Development)
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