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The purpose of this paper is to look at the role played by three archetypal constructs pertaining to the individual sustainability-oriented entrepreneur, namely prior knowledge, sustainability orientation and sustainability intention, in legitimation behavior and explores their strategic utility.

The author studies legitimacy-seeking behavior in the case of ten sustainability-oriented entrepreneurs. A qualitative case study approach is used, capturing evidence of legitimation behavior in the startup phase through interviews, participant observation and documentation analysis.

Prior knowledge and sustainability orientation appear to offer little value beyond their role as necessary factors in maintaining legitimacy. Both appear to have limited strategic value for legitimation in comparison to sustainability intention. Intention as a construct embodies the “paradox” of sustainability-oriented entrepreneurship, and learning to successfully overcome this paradox to strategically utilize intention in legitimation is crucial for these entrepreneurs.

Knowledge of these factors could assist sustainability-oriented entrepreneurs in strategically utilizing these factors as agency when dealing with diverse stakeholder expectations to achieve their enterprising goals. Strengthening knowledge on factors important for legitimacy is pertinent in supporting this shared value approach to entrepreneurship.

Little theoretical or empirical attention has been paid to the complexity of strategic legitimation behavior of sustainability-oriented entrepreneurs. This paper provides novel empirical insight into what role these archetypal factors play in legitimation behavior and how they can be strategically utilized.

Under what conditions do entrepreneurs make the sustainable decisions they need to develop socially and environmentally responsible new businesses? Explanations of sustainable decision-making have involved various cognitive features; however, it is not yet clear how they play a role in empirical terms and, moreover, how they combine to induce business decisions based on social, environmental and economic considerations. The purpose of this paper is to explore how five cognitive factors combine and causally connect to produce sustainable decision-making in entrepreneurship.

This study uses fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to examine the decision-making of 37 sustainable entrepreneurs. It focuses on a substantive conception of entrepreneurial behaviour to uncover the cognitive antecedents underlying entrepreneurial decisions that involve the explicit development and implementation of measures, targets and strategies aimed at improving its impact on people and the environment.

The configurational analysis reveals a typology comprising five combinations of cognitive factors constituting a comprehensive cognitive map of sustainable decision-making in entrepreneurship, namely: purpose-driven, determined; value-based, vacillating; value-based, unintended; single motive, single solution; and purpose-driven, hesitant.

This study demonstrates that no single condition is necessary nor sufficient for triggering decision-making involving social and environmental concerns, revealing five mental models leading to sustainable decision-making. In doing so, this paper responds to recent calls that stress the need for studies capable of uncovering the complex constellation of cognitive factors underlying entrepreneurial sustainable behaviour. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

This paper provides a systematic characterization of the cognitive underpinnings of sustainable decision-making and offers a basis for organizing the study of sustainable outcomes and configurations of cognitive antecedents. It reconciles prior efforts aimed at characterizing sustainability decisions in the context of SMEs and new enterprises, challenging current models based on awareness, experience and ethical normative frameworks.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the cognitive drivers that push entrepreneurs toward sustainable venture creation using entrepreneurial cognitive scripts. In particular, this study tests the relationship between entrepreneurial cognitive scripts and sustainability orientation among entrepreneurs in an emerging economy to understand whether entrepreneurial cognitive scripts act as a driver toward sustainability.

A primary research study was conducted using a structured questionnaire among 351 sample respondents, of which 54% labeled themselves as entrepreneurs and 46% labeled themselves as traditional business people, business students or non-entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs represented more than ten different industries such as agriculture, food and beverage, education, technology and entertainment.

The findings of this study highlighted a negative relationship between entrepreneurial cognitions and sustainability orientation as hypothesized. Additionally, non-entrepreneurs were found to be more sustainability-oriented, whereas entrepreneurs with high levels of cognitive scripts were found less concerned about sustainability issues.

This study has a geographic limitation as it has been conducted in a developing country, which is Egypt. Accordingly, the results should be generalized with caution to other developing nations.

This study shows the importance of sustainable entrepreneurship education as an important part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The study sheds the light on the different stakeholders that are responsible for raising awareness about the importance of sustainability in developing countries.

This study empirically validates the relationship between entrepreneurial cognitive scripts and sustainability orientation among several industries in a developing country. The study has also a novel contribution in validating that non-entrepreneurs can enjoy entrepreneurial cognitive scripts without the necessity of starting their ventures.

The purpose of this study is to help us understand social entrepreneurs’ lived experiences, reflecting the comprehensive entrepreneurial processes that encompass their past, present and future.

A narrative approach was used to explore the meaning of experiences in social entrepreneurs’ professional lives through the stories retold and restructured by social entrepreneurs. A total of 11 social entrepreneurs in the Midwest region of the USA were interviewed.

The authors identified three time-sequential themes: past (looking backward at the origin), present (living life as a social entrepreneur) and future (looking forward). Seven sub-themes emerged, revealing social entrepreneurs’ aspiration, self-knowledge, identity-defining moments, their sustainability-oriented leadership and how they build an organizational structure, partnership and handle the burden of work and the organization.

The findings offer useful information for future social entrepreneurs as they can learn from the perspectives of experienced social entrepreneurs in terms of what to prepare for and expect so they can achieve their full entrepreneurial potential. It can also aid in further development of social entrepreneur curricula in business and non-business schools.

The existing literature does not portray sufficient detail about how social entrepreneurs live the lives they have created and chosen to understand their lived experiences. This study also provides a comprehensive definition of social entrepreneurship, incorporating “collective perspective” with a mentality of “it’s not about me, it’s about us”.

The identification of a successful mix of strategic orientations is a big challenge for corporate sustainability and management research. To this end, the purpose of this paper is to explore and analyze the interrelationships among multiple variants of strategic orientations (i.e. entrepreneurial orientation (EO), market orientation (MO), technology orientation (TO) and sustainability orientation (SO)) that lead to the superior performance of sustainability-oriented small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in a developing country context.

This study utilized the case-study method to explore a detailed and comprehensive understanding of the interplay among multiple strategic orientations. The data were collected from the top management of SMEs working in Pakistan through semi-structured interviews, complemented with the data obtained through a structured survey and the firms’ documentary evidence. Interviews were content analyzed to reveal more rigorous and comprehensive results.

The findings of this study suggest that the strategic framework of successful firms utilizes the aspects from multiple orientations (EO, MO and SO) to create an appropriate alignment that ensures superior performance in a highly dynamic environment.

The key finding of this study is the identification of a configurational framework, Entrepreneurial Responsible Orientation, if successfully implemented, it has the potential to drive sustainable performance of the small firms particularly, and sustainable development of the country, generally.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of regulatory focus in sustainable entrepreneurship processes to answer questions on how sustainable entrepreneurs pursue their goals and what motivates them. Knowledge about an entrepreneur’s motivational attribute is essential when trying to understand new venture creation processes. To determine an entrepreneur’s affiliation with one of the two self-regulatory systems, promotion focus and prevention focus, it is helpful to establish whether he or she is motivated by growth and development goals (promotion) or rather by responsibility and security goals (prevention).

In a qualitative study of seven sustainable ventures, two semi-structured interview rounds with 14 founders were conducted. Archival data from internal and external sources were gathered, resulting in more than 80 text documents.

Findings reveal that the self-regulatory focus of sustainable entrepreneurs changes during the entrepreneurial process with regard to the temporal dynamics of motivation. While conceiving ideas, sustainable entrepreneurs engage in a prevention-focused self-regulatory process because social or ecological problems induce them to direct their attention toward sustainable development goals. During rollout, in contrast, they increasingly engage in a promotion-focused self-regulatory process and concentrate more on venture growth goals.

The results highlight the important role of a regulatory fit between key self-regulatory entrepreneurial behaviors and entrepreneurs’ regulatory orientation toward increased motivation and enjoyment when pursuing goals.

This study’s contributions extend and combine the theories of regulatory focus, entrepreneurial motivation, and entrepreneurial processes in the field of sustainable entrepreneurship. They are valuable for understanding the determinants of sustainable entrepreneurial action.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the venture development processes (or “entrepreneurial processes”) of “sustainable” entrepreneurs, i.e. entrepreneurs who create and build profitable companies that also pursue environmental or social causes. The paper aims to find how these mission‐oriented entrepreneurs achieve their business objectives while serving their social and environmental causes.

The paper identifies 21 successful sustainable entrepreneurial companies in various industries ranging from apparel to biotechnology that were exemplary in their pursuit for sustainability. The paper examined their key decisions and activities in their “entrepreneurial process”, collecting most of the relevant information from published or self‐developed case studies.

The paper finds that most of sustainable entrepreneurs are an unusual breed with limited business backgrounds. Most obtain financing from non‐conventional sources and employ unorthodox, yet sound human resource management practices. They are shrewd in their marketing strategies and effective in running efficient, environmentally sound operations. Also, they find innovative methods for balancing their financial goals against their objectives of making a difference in their environment and society.

The paper's findings help demystify and provide some insights into how values‐oriented entrepreneurs and their companies can simultaneously meet economic, social and/or environmental objectives.

This paper is one of the few studies that examine the business practices of for‐profit, sustainability‐oriented entrepreneurs. It is also one of the few formal studies that identify commonalities among a relatively large and diverse sample of companies. Most important, this research suggests practical guidelines for aspiring entrepreneurs to follow as they build their sustainable business ventures.

This study aims to conceptualize and investigate the relationships between halal entrepreneurial success, innovation capability and sustainable innovation in the halal industry.

Both integrative and generative approaches are combined to move forward from the literature to a theoretical contribution. The paper presents a model that relates halal entrepreneurial success to innovation capability and sustainable innovation. A purposive sample of 340 Malaysian halal entrepreneurs is used to test the conceptualized model. The partial least square technique was then used to assess the structural model.

The results disclosed that halal entrepreneurial success is positively related to both innovation capability and sustainable innovation. Also, the innovation capability mediates the relationship between halal entrepreneurial success and sustainable innovation.

This research conceptualized and examined a novel model that assesses the relationships between halal entrepreneurial success, innovation capability and sustainable innovation in the halal industry.

The purpose of this study is to integrate and extend two models of entrepreneurial intention to investigate the drivers of sustainable entrepreneurial intention among intermediate undergraduate university students in Nigeria. Specifically, this paper aims to introduce education for sustainable entrepreneurship into the integrated model, thereby fitting the model into the context of sustainable entrepreneurship.

Data was gathered with the help of a structured questionnaire from 435 students of a university in Nigeria. The students passed through a special entrepreneurship training in which they were educated on the concept and practice of sustainable entrepreneurship. SmartPLS was used to test the proposed structural model.

The findings revealed that education for sustainable entrepreneurship significantly influences all variables of the integrated model, but has nonsignificant direct influence on sustainable entrepreneurial intention. Sustainable entrepreneurial intention is significantly driven by attitude and propensity to act. Therefore, the inclusion of education for sustainable entrepreneurship into the regression equation adds to its explanatory power.

This study contributes toward understanding of sustainable entrepreneurial intention of intermediate university students in a developing world context – Nigeria. Above all, it is among the few studies that shed light on the strength of education for sustainable entrepreneurship in the formation of sustainable entrepreneurial intention among students. This study proposes integration and extension (by adding education for sustainable entrepreneurship) of the theory of planned behavior and entrepreneurial event model in learning about students’ intentions to engage in sustainable entrepreneurship.