Sustainable entrepreneurship impact and entrepreneurial venture life cycle: A systematic literature review

Abstract

This study analyses the sustainable entrepreneurship issues faced during the pre-seed and seed phases of the life cycle of entrepreneurial ventures, which are considered the protagonists of innovative changes towards a cleaner environment. Specifically, it investigates the role innovation plays in the life cycle of entrepreneurial ventures seeking to create sustainable business models and tools for measuring the social impact of such ventures in sustainability assessment systems designed to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the UN 2030 Agenda. The study conducts a rigorous literature review and bibliometric analysis of 166 English-language articles on entrepreneurship and sustainability published between 2001 and 2021, and formulates a map for the knowledge produced and disseminated in previous investigations. The results advance our understanding of how sustainability assessment can be integrated into the life cycle phases of innovative entrepreneurial ventures. This review can aid in the development of a comprehensive framework and of research propositions for sustainable entrepreneurship issues in the pre-seed and seed phases. The study also extends institutional and stakeholder theories to provide decision support for sustainable entrepreneurial ventures in their pre-seed and seed phases. It explains how stakeholders' participation and engagement with institutional structures can be invigorated and how this affects the decision consequences for sustainable entrepreneurs. Our results can help practitioners and researchers accurately interpret ‘innovation’ in the life cycle of entrepreneurial ventures and sustainability assessment systems, thus allowing them to formulate policies, strategies, and guidelines for promoting a sustainable development agenda.