Behavioral entrepreneurship for achieving the sustainable development goals

Abstract

This paper extends prior studies on sustainable entrepreneurship by proving how the impact of entrepreneurial activity on achieving sustainable development depends on the behaviors and motivations of entrepreneurs. More precisely, we examine the influence of opportunity and necessity driven entrepreneurs on the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development, which are constructed based on the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs). Using data for twenty developing countries, we find from the long-run estimates that opportunity entrepreneurship has a positive impact on the three dimensions of sustainable development, whereas necessity entrepreneurship has a negative effect on the environmental sustainability dimension. We also find from the short and long-run causality analyses that opportunity-driven entrepreneurs granger cause the three dimensions in the short and long-run, whereas necessity-driven entrepreneurs do not have any effect on these dimensions. Finally, the authors make some suggestions for further research in this area.