Sustainable Entrepreneurship Management and Digitalization
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Management".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 March 2023) | Viewed by 22409
Special Issue Editors
Interests: sustainable entrepreneurship; digital entrepreneurship; international entrepreneurship; SMEs
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: international entrepreneurship; SMEs; digitalization; business model innovation; social and industrial networks
Interests: born global firms; international new ventures; international entrepreneurship; SMEs
2. Turku School of Economics, University of Turku, 20500 Turku, Finland
Interests: entrepreneurial internationalization; strategic orientations; entrepreneurial opportunity creation
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Digitalization and sustainability are both important and interrelated in contemporary entrepreneurship (Bican and Brem, 2020; Gavrila and Ancillo, 2021). They are both mega trends that are bringing about changes in the ways of doing business, for both new and established business, now and in the future. Both digital entrepreneurship (Nambisan, 2017) and sustainable entrepreneurship (Cohen and Winn, 2007) provide distinct and timely perspectives from which entrepreneurship and management can be explored. However, we do not know how these forces collide, converge or disrupt, e.g., markets, competences, business models, networks and/or opportunities. Recently, researchers (Gupta, S., Motlagh, M., and Rhyner, J. 2020; Kiron and Unruh, 2018, Lichtenthaler, 2021) are debating whether sustainability and digitalization in combination can have positive as well as negative impacts on business, social and environmental levels. How do entrepreneurs, owner-managers or innovators balance these forces within the firm, network and/or ecosystem development? Likewise, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are faced with different requirements for sustainability and responsibility compared to large corporations (Murrillo and Lozano, 2006; Uzhegova et al., 2019), and there is still relatively little known regarding the role of sustainability and sustainable management in SMEs. Multidisciplinary research contributions such as this Special Issue are much-needed in era of sustainable entrepreneurship and digitalization, since they can contribute with timely, relevant and high-quality knowledge in research, practice and/or policy development.
This Special Issue invites theoretical, conceptual, and empirical papers that shed light on the role of digitalization and/or sustainability in entrepreneurship and management of SMEs; both original research articles and reviews are welcome. Studies employing quantitative or qualitative methods are welcome, as are mixed methods studies. Cross-country comparative studies as well as studies on entrepreneurial internationalization are welcome. Topics include but are not limited to:
- The role of sustainability and business responsibility in management and internationalization of SMEs;
- Business models and business model innovation in digital and sustainable entrepreneurship;
- The characteristics of sustainable and digital entrepreneurship and management in domestic and international entrepreneurial domains;
- Capabilities related to sustainable and digital entrepreneurship;
- The role of networks in sustainable and digital entrepreneurship management;
- Ecosystems in sustainable and digital entrepreneurship management;
- Social and environmental entrepreneurship management.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
References:
- Bican, P.M.; Brem, A. Digital Business Model, Digital Transformation, Digital Entrepreneurship: Is There A Sustainable “Digital”?. Sustainability 2022, 12, 5239.
- Cohen, B.; Winn, M.I. Market imperfections, opportunity and sustainable entrepreneurship. J. Bus. Ventur. 2007, 22, 29–49.
- Gavrila, S.G.; Ancillo, A.D.L. Entrepreneurship, innovation, digitization and digital transformation toward a sustainable growth within the pandemic environment. Int. J. Entrep. Behav. Res. 2021, doi:10.1108/ijebr-05-2021-0395.
- Gupta, S.; Motlagh, M.; Rhyner, J. The Digitalization Sustainability Matrix: A Participatory Research Tool for Investigating Digitainability. Sustainability 2020, 12, 9283.
- Kiron, D.; Unruh, G. The Convergence of Digitalization and Sustainability. 2018, MIT Sloan Management Review. Available online: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-convergence-of-digitalization-and-sustainability/ (accessed on 22 December 2021).
- Lichtenthaler, U.C. Digitainability: The Combined Effects of the Megatrends Digitalization and Sustainability. J. Innov.Manag. 2021, 9, 64–80.
- Murillo, D.; Lozano, J.M. SMEs and CSR: An approach to CSR in their own words. J. Bus. Ethics 2006, 67, 227–240.
- Nambisan, S. Digital entrepreneurship: Toward a digital technology perspective of entrepreneurship. Entrep. Theory Pract. 2017, 41, 1029–1055.
- Uzhegova, M.; Torkkeli, L.; Saarenketo, S. Corporate Social Responsibility in SMEs: Implications on Competitive Performance. Manag. Rev. 2019, 30, 232–267.
Dr. Lasse Torkkeli
Dr. Nicolaj Hannesbo Petersen
Dr. Erik Rasmussen
Dr. Sascha Fuerst
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
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-blind 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
- sustainable entrepreneurship
- digitalization
- digital entrepreneurship
- international entrepreneurship
- SMEs
- SME internationalization
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.