Advancing Innovation and Sustainability in SMEs and Entrepreneurship

Dear Colleagues,

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been recognized for their significant contribution to job creation, innovation opportunities, and economic dynamism. Considering the importance of SMEs for a country’s economic development, it is crucial to identify how these companies achieve their economic benefits using a limited set of resources while simultaneously causing minimal harm to the environment and society. The sustainable development process stalls with the rapid population growth and is triggered by the scarcity of natural resources. Companies, especially large ones, have become aware of the importance of properly understanding the concept of sustainable development. However, most SMEs lack a sufficient understanding of this concept (Nuseir & Aljumah, 2022). 

Currently, the transition from the maturity phase to the sustainability phase is the greatest challenge faced by SMEs in developing countries. In this case, most SMEs relax after reaching the maturity stage, in which they achieve attractive performance measured in profits, sales, and customer satisfaction, but not in sustainability (Ismail, 2022). The term “sustainability,” as used in the business context, means designing business strategies that meet the demands of companies and stakeholders while simultaneously preserving, protecting, and enhancing natural and human resources for future needs (Ismail, 2022). 

To achieve this, we must be aware that having intangible resources oriented towards knowledge and innovation helps to promote sustainable growth of small and medium-sized enterprises and currently constitutes an important area of research. Innovation capacity, understood as the intuitive ability of an individual or a company to transform an explicit concept towards a value orientation that entails economic value, will lead to wealth creation and ultimately result in more sustainable companies, where best practices and approaches are applied to address social, environmental, and economic aspects in order to ensure business development (Al-Shaikh & Hanaysha, 2023). 

Entrepreneurs and managers of SMEs face many challenges to improve their performance, lack proper guidance, have inadequate facilities and infrastructure, and need educational and technical skills. It is surprising to know that most SMEs do not survive more than a few years. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze which management practices, such as knowledge management, human resources, innovation, etc., play an important role in the development and growth of small and medium-sized enterprises. Although numerous studies have explored the fundamental role of knowledge management practices in the performance and economic growth of SMEs (Qader et al., 2022), we believe that there are different topics that can be addressed, such as: 

Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following topics: 

1.   Sustainable innovation in SMEs
2.   Different practices and benefits of ecological and environmental management in SMEs
3.   Sustainable and regenerative development in SMEs
4.   Sustainable human resource management in SMEs
5.   Sustainable leadership in SMEs
6.   Digitalization, Technology, and Sustainable Solutions in SMEs
7.   Sustainable Knowledge Management in SMEs.
8.   Sustainable entrepreneurship
9.   Sustainable business models
10.   Sustainable Performance in SMEs  

We look forward to receiving your contributions.  

Dr. Santiago Gutiérrez-Broncano
Prof. Dr. Jesús D. Sánchez De Pablo
Guest Editors

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• sustainability
• small medium enterprises
• sustainable management
• innovation
• corporate social responsability