Advances in Sustainable Entrepreneurship

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainable Entrepreneurship has the potential to contribute to the solution of environmental and social problems through entrepreneurial activity. Thereby, it aims at societal transitions towards more sustainability. Despite the enormous potential of sustainable entrepreneurship, the academic debate in this field has just begun to evolve, and, consequently, more research to advance the concept of sustainable entrepreneurship is needed.

With reference to Dean and McMullen (2007, p. 58), sustainable entrepreneurship can be defined as an innovative “process of discovering, evaluating, and exploiting economic opportunities that are present in market failures which detract from sustainability“. It is not distinct from phenomena such as social and environmental entrepreneurship, but offers a sustainability perspective on these concepts (Thompson et al., 2011) and is therefore not restricted to profit-oriented organizations.

Among the papers published in the field of sustainable entrepreneurship, only a few quantitative analyses and literature reviews can be found, but there is also need for more qualitative, conceptual, and theoretical advances on sustainable entrepreneurship.

The Special Issue aims at addressing this need for high quality research on sustainable entrepreneurship. It welcomes contributions on the following non-conclusive list of topics:

-          Sustainable entrepreneurship and innovation

-          Financing sustainable entrepreneurship

-          Entrepreneurial growth

-          Characteristics of sustainable entrepreneurs

-          Theories in sustainable entrepreneurship

-          Links and (dis)similarities to sustainability management

-          Sustainable entrepreneurship and public policy

-          Evaluating sustainable ventures

-          Transformative aspirations of sustainable entrepreneurship

-          Sustainable entrepreneurship and stakeholder theory

-          Sustainable business models

-          Literature reviews on sustainable entrepreneurship

-          …

Submissions addressing further issues related to sustainable entrepreneurship (including transdisciplinary approaches) are explicitly welcome.

Please note: Eventhough Administrative Science is an Open-Access Journal, no Article Processing Charges (APC) apply for Submissions to this Special Issue.

Jacob Hörisch
Guest Editor

References:

Belz, F. M.; Binder, J. K. (2015): Sustainable Entrepreneurship: A Convergent Process Model. Business Strategy and the Environment, OnlineFirst.

Dean, T. J.; McMullen, J.S. (2007): Toward a theory of sustainable entrepreneurship: Reducing environmental degradation through entrepreneurial action.  Journal of Business Venturing 22 (1),  50–76.

Honig, B.; Karlsson, T. (2013): An Institutional Perspective on Business Planning Activities for Nascent Entrepreneurs in Sweden and the US. Administrative Sciences 3 (4), 266–289.

Hörisch, J.; Freeman, R. E.; Schaltegger, S. (2014): Applying Stakeholder Theory in Sustainability Management: Links, Similarities, Dissimilarities, and a Conceptual Framework. Organization & Environment 27 (4), 328–346.

Hörisch, J.; Johnson, M. P.; Schaltegger, S. (2014): Implementation of Sustainability Management and Company Size: A Knowledge-Based View. Business Strategy and the Environment, OnlineFirst.

Schaltegger, S.; Wagner, M. (2011): Sustainable entrepreneurship and sustainability innovation: categories and interactions. Business Strategy and the Environment 20 (4), 222–237.

Thompson, N.; Kiefer, K.; York, J.G (2011): Distinctions not dichotomies: Exploring social, sustainable, and environmental entrepreneurship. In: G. T. Lumpkin and J. A. Katz (Eds): Social and sustainable entrepreneurship. Bingley, United Kingdom: Emerald, 201–229.

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Administrative Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.