Doing business in a green way: A systematic review of the ecological sustainability entrepreneurship literature and future research directions

Abstract

In line with an intensified call for conducting business in a greener and more sustainable way, sustainability-related entrepreneurship has become an important subfield of entrepreneurship research. The variety of terms, such as “sustainable entrepreneurship”, “ecopreneurship”, “environmental entrepreneurship/enviropreneurship”, and “green entrepreneurship”, reflects the fragmented and inconsistent findings of this research field. Based on the one-pillar model of sustainable development, i.e., ecological sustainability, we present the first systematic review of the literature on ecological sustainable entrepreneurship. This analysis of 114 scientific articles reveals a strong focus on the drivers of engagement in ecological sustainable entrepreneurship, the drivers of conducting business in an ecological sustainable way, the strategic actions taken by ecological sustainable enterprises, and the outcomes, enabling factors and challenges of ecological sustainable entrepreneurship. Based on this thematic clustering, we develop an integrative framework for ecological sustainable entrepreneurship and a coherent agenda for future research. This work may help researchers to take stock of the existing literature and advance this research field.