Scientometric, fuzzy NGT and DEMATEL analysis for determining sustainable business practices for entrepreneurial firms

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to (1) map the most important topics in the domain of sustainable business practices for entrepreneurial firms in emerging countries, (2) identify important terms in the various dimensions of sustainability in business and (3) identify the important practices and prioritize the practices.Design/methodology/approachThis study has adopted a unique methodology that combines state-of-art scientometric analysis with the fuzzy nominal group technique (NGT) and fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL). Results obtained from the co-occurrence analysis in scientometrics were further mapped through NGT to obtain the list of the most important topics in the domain. The factors affecting sustainable business practices obtained through topic mapping were analyzed through fuzzy DEMATEL to obtain the cause-and-effect relation of variables.FindingsThe scale of firms, leadership, uncertainty, gender, country/location, education and tourism were found to be the factors affecting the sustainable business practices of entrepreneurial firms. The sustainable business practices for entrepreneurial firms were (1) innovation, (2) resilience, (3) policy, (4) business ethics and virtue ethics, (5) business model, (6) upcycling and value creation, (7) collaboration and (8) triple bottom line.Practical implicationsPolicymakers in entrepreneurial firms, as well as other organizations, can implement the identified sustainable business practices to obtain optimum results and smooth functioning of the companies. The research framework obtained can be tested using exploratory methods.Originality/valueVery few researchers have used the technique of scientometric analysis to identify the sustainable business practices of entrepreneurial firms, and to the best of the knowledge of the authors, no earlier researcher has attempted to use the technique of topic mapping, fuzzy NGT and fuzzy DEMATEL in combination.