Sustainable Entrepreneurship Management and Digitalization

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:

1. Bican, P.M.; Brem, A. Digital Business Model, Digital Transformation, Digital Entrepreneurship: Is There A Sustainable “Digital”?. Sustainability 2022, 12, 5239.
2.  Cohen, B.; Winn, M.I. Market imperfections, opportunity and sustainable entrepreneurship. J. Bus. Ventur. 2007, 22, 29–49.
3. 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.
4. Gupta, S.; Motlagh, M.; Rhyner, J. The Digitalization Sustainability Matrix: A Participatory Research Tool for Investigating Digitainability. Sustainability 2020, 12, 9283.
5. Kiron, D.; Unruh, G. The Convergence of Digitalization and Sustainability. 2018, MIT Sloan Management Review. Available online: https://0-sloanreview-mit-edu.brum.beds.ac.uk/article/the-convergence-of-digitalization-and-sustainability/ (accessed on 22 December 2021).
6. Lichtenthaler, U.C. Digitainability: The Combined Effects of the Megatrends Digitalization and Sustainability. J. Innov.Manag. 2021, 9, 64–80.
7. Murillo, D.; Lozano, J.M. SMEs and CSR: An approach to CSR in their own words. J. Bus. Ethics 2006, 67, 227–240.
8. Nambisan, S. Digital entrepreneurship: Toward a digital technology perspective of entrepreneurship. Entrep. Theory Pract. 2017, 41, 1029–1055.
9. 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

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• sustainable entrepreneurship
• digitalization
• digital entrepreneurship
• international entrepreneurship
• SMEs
• SME internationalization