Social, Environmental and Sustainable Entrepreneurship Research

Abstract

What process of socioeconomic transformation might move humanity towards sustainability-as-flourishing, an ideal view of sustainability where life flourishes indefinitely on Earth? We suggest entrepreneurship as one such process and review the literature on three types of entrepreneurship said to transform society by creating value beyond profit: social, environmental and sustainable entrepreneurship. From environmental and social scientific literature, we distil a set of requisites for sustainability-as-flourishing, a topic of growing interest. We then review the literature on social, environmental and sustainable entrepreneurship relative to these requisites. Findings show contributions and also limitations towards sustainability-as-flourishing reflected in research on each type of entrepreneurship. We propose a research agenda to address the most glaring limitations including a failure to study critical reflection processes that can shape entrepreneurs’ actions and a lack of emphasis on the Earth’s physical carrying capacity. Future research could also zero in more on complex systems thinking and consider root causes.