Abstract
In this study, we conduct an exploratory study with the aim to investigate whether the type of entrepreneurial activity contributes to the achievement of sustainable development goals (SDGs) in its five dimensions (people, prosperity, planet, peace, and partnership). In addition, we evaluate whether foreign direct investment (FDI) strengthens or reduces these relations. To do so, we apply a multivariate analysis to a sample of 67 countries and find that entrepreneurship contributes negatively to the achievement of SDGs. This effect is mostly due to necessity and non-innovative entrepreneurships, and is evident in the people, prosperity, and partnership dimensions. Nonetheless, FDI helps to diminish this negative effect, as it improves the relation between entrepreneurships, particularly necessity entrepreneurships, and SDG achievement. The main dimension which experiences an improvement due to FDI is people.
Highlights
Today, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a legitimate framework to guide the daily activities of businesses and society
Entrepreneurship is viewed as being a source of economic growth and employment creation [79], we conclude that entrepreneurship has an overall negative effect on the achievement of sustainable development goals (SDGs) that harms sustainable development, for countries with lower SDGs scores
We observe that this negative effect is mainly due to necessity and non-innovative entrepreneurship
Summary
The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a legitimate framework to guide the daily activities of businesses and society. We investigate whether and under what circumstances entrepreneurship can contribute to the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of SDGs. One of novelties of this study is that attention is devoted to evaluating the effect of the different types of entrepreneurial activity on SDGs. This study focuses on two classifications which have gained importance in classifying entrepreneurial motives; namely, opportunity versus necessity entrepreneurship [11] and innovative versus non-innovative entrepreneurship [12]. This study contributes to the sustainable development literature by attempting to respond to the call for a better understanding of the role of entrepreneurship in achieving SDGs. Hall, Daneke, and Lenox (2010) [14] find that the UN recognizes entrepreneurship as an important driver of sustainable development, there is little knowledge about under what conditions entrepreneurs can simultaneously foster economic growth, advance environmental goals, and improve social conditions.
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