Dear Colleagues,

In the past two decades, much research has focused on the economic growth potential of international entrepreneurship (IE) (Jones et al 2011). Recently, researchers, policy makers, opinion makers, experts, as well as practitioners have challenged the monolithic assumption of economic growth  suggesting a broader holistic foundation for evaluating the ability of firms to create wealth (Cooke et al. 2016; Stiglitz, Sen, and Fitoussi 2010). The notion of blended value has been central in this discussion (Zahra, Newey, and Li 2014) and has given rise to the study of a new breed of firms that are oriented towards both financial, social, and environmental opportunities (Larsen and Hannibal, Forthcoming). To recapitulate this through seminal authors (Oviatt and McDougall 2005), sustainable international entrepreneurship is focused on the discovery, enactment, evaluation, and exploitation of financial, social, and environmental entrepreneurial opportunities across national borders (Hannibal, Evers, and Servais 2016; Mainela, Puhakka, and Servais 2014).

Much of the current discussion about industrial adaptation to sustainable measures has been focused on multinational enterprise performance (Corporate Knight 2020). However, seminal IE literature posits that innovative power in many industries can be traced to nascent entrepreneurial firms (Knight and Cavusgil 2004). Accordingly, to capture the broad-based wealth creation potential of sustainable international entrepreneurship, there is a need of insights on how international entrepreneurs navigate and strategically build sustainable business models to create a social, financial, and environmental imprint.

References

1. Cooke, Phil, Zhiyuan Wang, Martin C. Domfang, Martins Okoh, and Bossou Constant. The power of purpose: Jesuits for Social Entrepreneurship. Santa Clara University, Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship: Santa Clara, CA, USA, 2016.
2. Corporate Knight. 2020. "2020 Global 100 result." Available online: https://www.corporateknights.com/reports/2020-global-100/2020-global-100-ranking-15795648/.
3. Hannibal, Martin, Natasha Evers, and Per Servais. Opportunity recognition and international new venture creation in university spin-offs—Cases from Denmark and Ireland. international Entrepreneurship 2016, 14, 345–72.
4. Knight, Gary, and S.Tamer Cavusgil. Innovation, organizational capabilities, and the born-global firm. Journal of International Business Studies 2004, 35, 124–41.
5. Larsen, Nathalie Nørregaard, and Martin Hannibal. Forthcomming. International Social Ventures: A literature review and guidance for future research. Journal of international Entrepreneurship.
6. Mainela, Tuija, Vesa Puhakka, and Per Servais. The Concept of International Opportunity in International Entrepreneurship: A Review and a Research Agenda. International Journal of Management Reviews 2014, 16, 105–29. doi: 10.1111/ijmr.12011.
7. Oviatt, Benjamin M., and Patricia P. McDougall. Defining International Entrepreneurship and Modeling the Speed of Internationalization. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 2005, 29, 537–54. doi: DOI 10.1111/j.1540-6520.2005.00097.x.
8. Stiglitz, Joseph E, Amartya Sen, and Jean-Paul Fitoussi. Mismeasuring our lives: Why GDP doesn't add up. The report by the commision on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress; The New Press: New York, NY, USA, 2010.
9. Zahra, Shaker A, Lance R Newey, and Yong Li. On the frontiers: The implications of social entrepreneurship for international entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 2014, 38, 137–58.

Prof. Dr. Per Servais
Dr. Martin Hannibal
Guest Editors

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• International entrepreneurship
• International new ventures
• Sustainable business model
• Social entrepreneurship
• UN’s Sustainable development goals
• International opportunities
• Blended values