Driving factors for the transformation to sustainable entrepreneurship in small and medium production companies

Abstract

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are significant contributors to economic growth. Being the most represented group of enterprises, SMEs can carry the greatest weight in contributing to sustainable development by transforming into sustainable entrepreneurship (SE). However, SMEs are substantially limited in resources, and to assist SMEs, first and foremost, it is important to understand what facilitates the transformation. Thus, the study’s objective was to identify driving factors for transformation to SE in production SMEs. A monographic literature review was conducted to provide a comprehensive summary of the latest research. Further, as a result of the secondary data and the content analysis methods, 6 driving and 7 assisting factors were identified that support the central feature of transformation to SE – the ability to find new opportunities. Based on the connections among the discovered factors, the authors developed an Innovation-Driven Development (IDD) conceptual framework. The framework illustrates the pathway to SE for production SMEs.