Understanding Sustainable Entrepreneurship Through Bibliometrics Analysis

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-5087116/v1

This bibliometrics study aims to identify trends related to documents, authors, conceptual structure, and networks between different authors, institutions, and countries on green entrepreneurship. It also aims to identify future research directions. In this work, 356 publications were recovered from the WOS (Web of Science) record from the time of 2018 to 2022 were analyzed and conclusions were drawn using the ‘bibliometric R-package’ (biblioshiny) and ‘VOSviewer’. The UK and the USA are among the top countries that are primarily driving research on green entrepreneurship. Cohn B, Genus A, and Fichter K are among the authors who published numerous articles on green entrepreneurship, according to this bibliometrics study. The analysis was constructed based on keywords and concluded that the areas that are still undeveloped but have a high degree of relevance include, Research and Development, Innovation, Technology, education, industry, etc. The study highlights the lack of collaboration in green entrepreneurship, highlighting the need for collaboration among nations, organizations, and researchers. Furthermore, the business and management discipline dominate writings on green entrepreneurship, necessitating a broadening of focus and combining several professions. This bibliometric evaluation provides a thorough, organized, and impartial analysis of the green entrepreneurship sector, reducing bias. Drawing from citations, it broadens the scope of previous evaluations, identifies gaps, and sets future study objectives to spur new research streams.

Green entrepreneurship

Sustainable Entrepreneurship

Bibliometrics

Innovation

Biblioshiny

The subject of entrepreneurship has likely received the greatest attention in recent years. While economic development is what developing nations like India are aiming for, entrepreneurship is highlighted as the engine of both economic expansion and development. According to the findings of several research, economic growth and entrepreneurship are positively correlated (Melay et al., 2017). In the wake of the environmental dangers that economies are facing, entrepreneurs who are reformers and can pave the way for sustainability may replace traditional economic development. Climate crises not only harmed the environment irreparably and disrupted eco-friendly cycles, but it has also put economies' survival in danger. The phrase ‘green entrepreneurship’ was coined by Berle. Green technology is used in the production process, and supply chains are redesigned to make them more responsive to environmental requirements. This increases demand for sustainable development and the green economy while generating green jobs (Nayak and Sahoo, 2022). Different terminologies have been used these days interchangeably for “Green entrepreneurship” which includes "Ecopreneurship", "Environmental Entrepreneurship” and "Eco-Entrepreneurship". It entails the establishment of new businesses that prioritize the preservation of the environment and its resources including green tourism, treatment of wastewater, reusing, renewable energy, and biological diversity. Since many developing nations have declared it a top priority to adopt identical practices, SMEs are also attempting to adopt this sustainable approach (Abdelmegeed et al., 2023). Ecologists argue for creating environment-friendly economies, with sustainable consumption being crucial for post-industrial societies. Customer’s increasing knowledge and need for sustainable goods, their perception of business as socially responsible for environmental protection, and the reality that green items are currently popular and hence beneficial for an enterprise are all important factors. The statement as mentioned earlier seems to be the driving force behind green entrepreneurship. However, the main obstacles to embracing green entrepreneurship include a lack of green society collaboration, lack of green financing, and the lack of suitable administrative aspects (Mohsen, 2018). Studies recommended that countries ought to work to eliminate institutional barriers so that the marketplace can operate unrestrictedly, markets should be made more competitive to encourage more involvement in economic activities and regional ties need to get more attention since they create new markets for domestic companies and increase country prominence in this area (Pervaiz, 2015). "Green entrepreneurship" involves creating innovative products and technologies to meet customer demands and contribute to a sustainable future. Sustainable business owners understand the connection between innovation and sustainability, marketing products with positive environmental impacts. They challenge traditional marketing tactics to present a sustainable argument (Haldar & Dutta, 2017). Businesses show a good impact on social, environmental and economic benefits such as the development of freshly created jobs, lifelong education opportunities and abilities, growth of information technology and digital marketplace, the shield of the surroundings, and effectiveness of deposits. According to the concept that innovation is a crucial component of environment-friendly entrepreneurship, innovative operations are crucial to the transformation of businesses in the direction of sustainability (Urbaniec, 2018). A focus on individual green businesses runs the risk of exaggerating their impact on changing economies with the result of disguising the importance of supporting connections and various actors. Yet, studies on environmental entrepreneurship till now haven't given sufficient insight into how, and within what socio-spatial circumstances, sustainable business owners may shape ability and strength by altering current game regulations or developing new mechanisms of reward (Yu & Gibbs, 2019). Although some studies have turned their focus towards the socio-spatial situations that may support green business owners, it hasn't been able to shed light on the practices and procedures via which transformation occurs, or how financial endeavors are materially altered in particular circumstances. We looked into the possible research areas related to green entrepreneurship which can be developed through thematic map analysis. This study attempted to collect and record the quantitative information of several chosen articles using the bibliometric R-package and VOSviewer. Our research aims to fulfil the following objectives-

To identify the studies that have been conducted on green entrepreneurship in different parts of the world for a selected period.
This study also attempted to locate networks of green entrepreneurship-related collaboration between different researchers, institutions, and nations.
To explore the trending topics on green entrepreneurship from 2018 to 2022.

We carried out this comprehensive literature evaluation to organize the body of knowledge on green entrepreneurship. Search for the facts was conducted with the conditions mentioned in Table 1 where the keywords used as selection criteria are limited to the topic only. Usually, WOS and Scopus databases are used for bibliometrics analysis (Pranckutė 2021),. so, we have used the Web of Science database to collect the relevant data. After applying the below-mentioned keywords in the topic field only, the database produced 356 articles. According to the following search pattern, data download (savedrecs) took place on 31 August 2023. We applied the PRISMA method (Fig. 2) to these 356 articles and then, after excluding some articles, we proceeded with our study with 183 articles only.

[“Eco entrepreneurship” (topic) OR “Environmental entrepreneurship” (topic) OR “Green entrepreneurship” (topic) OR “Sustainable entrepreneurship” (topic) OR “Ecopreneurship” (topic) OR “Social entrepreneurship” (topic) AND “Sustainability” (topic), (REFINED TO- “Open Access only”), (REFINED TO- “2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022”), (REFINED TO- “Articles only”), (REFINED TO- “English”), (REFINED TO- “Business and Management”)].

Table 1

Systematic Review of Search Conditions Process
Particulars	Filters	No. of articles remains after applying filters
Keywords	(“Eco entrepreneurship” OR “Environmental entrepreneurship” OR “Green entrepreneurship” OR “Sustainable entrepreneurship” OR “Ecopreneurship” OR “Social entrepreneurship”) AND (“sustainability”)	n = 2072
Quick filters	Open access only	n = 2072
Time frame	2018,2019,2020,2021,2022, and (early access of 2023)	n = 1511
Type of document	Articles only	n = 1401
Language	English	n = 1401
WOS categories	Business and Management	n = 356

3.1 Summary of the data

This section covers brief description of the whole data that is selected for our study purpose and three field plots. Data has been gathered from last five years (2018 to 2022 and early access articles of 2023). It has been concluded that a total of 183 documents which are selected for the study contain 61 Sources such as books, journals, etc, the total number of authors is 517, and Single-authored documents have 14 authors. Total references are 13117, researchers’ keywords are 715, and 615 total keyword pluses (words that appear repeatedly or more than once in the titles of referenced publications). Figure 3 illustrates three field plots of authors, keywords, and author’s countries. Names of the top ten authors are displayed on the left field; the middle field represents the author’s keywords (n10) and the right field shows the author’s countries. Cohn B, Genus A, Fichter K, Guerrero M, Burch Si, and other renowned authors have written pieces on green entrepreneurship. The top working nations include the United Kingdom (n17), the United States (n16), Spain (n16), Italy (n15), Germany (n11), and so on. The top author’s keywords revealed various terms which include Sustainable Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship, Sustainability, Social Entrepreneurship etc.

3.2. Sources information

This section discusses Bradford's Law and production of sources throughout time. Figure 4 shows most relevant sources using Bradford law. Under Bradford law the total number of articles are divided into 3 groups, each consisting of one-third of all articles. The figure shows that Journals like Business Strategy and Environment, Small Business Economics, International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Technological Forecasting and Social Change fall under Zone One journals (i.e. Core Journals), Journals like Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Research, Industrial Marketing Management fall under Zone 2 and Journals like Innovation-Organization & Management, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Environmental Management fall under Zone three journals (i.e., Secondary journals). Table 2 shares information rigorously about the growth of sources over this period.

Table 2

Sources production over the period
Year	Business Strategy and Environment	Small Business Economics	International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal	Technological Forecasting and Social Change	International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research	Journal of Business Ethics
2018	1	0	2	2	5	1
2019	2	5	2	5	5	4
2020	5	5	3	8	7	5
2021	13	12	5	9	8	5
2022	22	14	8	10	8	7
2023	30	18	10	10	8	8

3.3. Authors

Information is provided in this area regarding the top authors who published articles on green entrepreneurship. Table 3 shows the top ten cited documents of our study along with their titles, sources' names, years, and author’s names. (Kraus S, 2020) document entitled ‘Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Performance: The Mediating Role of Environmental Strategy and Green Innovation’ has recorded maximum citations (n = 308), (Cohen B, 2018) article named ‘Sustainable Entrepreneurship Research: Taking Stock and Looking Ahead’ received second highest citations (n175). Blok V’s (2018) article ‘Toward a Validated Competence Framework for Sustainable Entrepreneurship’ has 109 citations, Kraus S (2021) article titled ‘Social Entrepreneurship Orientation: Drivers of Success for Start-Ups and Established Industrial Firms’ has been ranked lowest in the below-mentioned list of top-cited documents as it received 34 citations only. Figure 5 depicts the productivity of an author using Lotka's law. The graph of the top documents written by various authors is displayed in the image. It reveals that only 1 document has been published by 472 authors on green entrepreneurship. There are only 2 documents authored by 42 authors, 3 by 3 authors, and so forth.

Table 3

**Top ten cited documents of our study**
Author	Year	Title	Sources	Total Citations
Kraus S	2020	‘Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Performance: The Mediating Role of Environmental Strategy and Green Innovation’	“Technological Forecasting and Social Change	308
Cohen B	2018	‘Sustainable Entrepreneurship Research: Taking Stock and Looking Ahead	Business Strategy and The Environment”	175
Block V	2018	‘Toward A Validated Competence Framework for Sustainable Entrepreneurship’	Organization & Environment	109
Castano-Martinez Ms	2021	‘Effects Of Sociocultural and Economic Factors on Social Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Development’	Journal Of Innovation & Knowledge	85
Fichter K	2021	‘Sustainable Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: An Emerging Field of Research’	Small Business Economics	73
Amankwah-Amoah J	2020	‘Stakeholder Integration, Environmental Sustainability Orientation and Financial Performance’	Journal Of Business Research	66
Cohen B	2018	‘The Double-Edged Sword of Purpose-Driven Behaviour in Sustainable Venturing’	Journal Of Business Venturing	48
Fichter K	2021	‘University-Linked Programmes for Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Regional Development: How and With What Impact?’	Small Business Economics	47
Barba-Sanchez V	2022	‘The Entrepreneurial Intention of University Students: An Environmental Perspective’	European Research on Management and Business Economics	38
Kraus S	2021	‘Social Entrepreneurship Orientation: Drivers of Success for Start-Ups and Established Industrial Firms’	Industrial Marketing Management	34

3.4 Top Performing Nations

Based on the nationality of the corresponding author, Fig. 6 displays the scientific findings of top twenty nations in the fields of green entrepreneurship and international collaboration in stylometry research. Single Country Publications are referred to as SCPs, and Multiple Country Publications are MCPs. From the results it has been derived that the UK, Germany and Netherlands are the countries that has published the highest number of articles and the UK, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, USA, and other nations have a large number of international alliances. Still, certain conclusions may be drawn from the MCP ratio of the twenty most influential nations, shown as a percentage of total articles. Among all countries Belgium has gained maximum MCP ratio (100%), then, Denmark (100%), New Zealand (38%), and China (80%). The ten nations with the most articles published include the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands.

Figure 7 shows trending topics between 2018 to 2022 on the basis of keywords plus in the hierarchical arrangement on green entrepreneurship that are discussed by scholars annually. These topics are related to green entrepreneurship which are used in published publications. For instance, in 2019, Institutional entrepreneurship (freq. 8), then Self-efficacy (freq. 6) and finance (freq. 5) was the most discussed. However, one year later, in 2020, Management (freq. 26), Social Entrepreneurship (freq. 10), Responsibility (freq. 10) and entrepreneurship (freq. 470), Innovation (freq. 43), Business (freq. 22) was the most discussed issue in 2021. In the year 2022, Performance (freq. 36), Sustainable Entrepreneurship (freq. 19) and Knowledge (freq.15) among the most discussed topics. From the trend it can be noticed that emerging themes of 2023 includes areas like Networks and capabilities.

With the use of VOSviewer, Fig. 8 displays a network visualising diagram of author keywords featuring a minimal occurrence over two times. Size of every bubble depends upon the times the respective keyword occurred. Maximum frequency is found in "sustainable entrepreneurship," which occurs 32 times and has a strength of the link of 154. Next in frequency are "entrepreneurship," which occurs 28 times and has strength of the link of 151, "sustainability," which occurs 24 times and has a strength link of 125, and "social entrepreneurship," which occurs 18 times and has a strength link of 83, and "sustainable development," which occurs 14 times and has a link strength of 81. According to distance analysis, which considers link quality and citation weight—both of which are dependent on frequency—keywords are divided into eight clusters in Fig. 9. The number of times a keyword has been co-selected in a publication is shown by the dimensions of the circles where it appears. The words most closely associated with strength are entrepreneurship, innovation, and sustainable entrepreneurship. The distance between two keywords shows how strong and similar in theme they are relative to one another. A comparable theme among the publications is indicated by circles of the same colour and each hue denotes a different cluster.

3.5 Conceptual and social structure analysis

This section includes Thematic Map Analysis, Co-citation networks of Authors and Institutions prepared with the help of biblioshiny (R-package) and various collaborations on publications related to green entrepreneurship among different institutions and countries. Figure 10 identifies, thematic map shows the co-occurrence network's discovered clusters from 2018 to 2022. Here, X-axis shows centrality, or how much a network cluster interacts with other clusters, and gives information on the importance of a theme. As we can see, the whole map has divided the key themes into four quadrants based on some parameters. The initial region shows motor concepts (including concepts that have developed), the second region identifies advanced and isolated concepts (concepts that are of little significance for the field), and the third quad. includes arising or reducing concepts (including concepts that have been lightly developed). Fall into fourth Quad. are fundamental and intersecting concepts or universal issues that cross over into other fields of study. Future research studies can lie in the areas that fall under the quad. four (i.e., Research and Development, Innovation, Technology, strategy, etc.). The co-citation structure of different authors is shown in Fig. 11. Here, Cluster One includes authors like Mair J, Teece DJ, Battilana J, Anonymous and Cohen B, Munoz P, and Dean TJ belongs to Cluster Two. Cluster three includes names like Stam E, Autio E, Acs ZJ, etc.

Figure 12 shows collaborations networks on green entrepreneurship between various institutions. It reveals that De Montfort Univ, Univ Kent, Univ Manchester fall under Cluster 1. Cluster two includes Coventry Univ, Univ Turi, Brunel Univ London, and cluster three includes Leuphana Univ Luneburg, Brock Univ, Univ Sussex, and so forth. Table 4 reveals that Australia and New Zealand have tied with highest no. of collaborations (n2). Austria and Macedonia share second place with one partnership, and so on.

Table 4

**Top ten collaborations around the world**
From	To	Frequency
Australia	New Zealand	two
Austria	Macedonia	One
Austria	North Macedonia	One
Belgium	Australia	One
Belgium	Portugal	One
Brazil	Russia	One
Canada	Poland	One
Chile	Brazil	One
Chile	Russia	One
China	Colombia	one

This bibliometric review analyzed scientific literature on green entrepreneurship from 2018 to 2022, focusing on key issues and trends. It identified renowned authors like Cohn B, Genus A, Fichter K, Guerrero M, and Burch Si, as well as emerging countries like the UK, USA, Spain, and Italy. The study identified prominent sources like Business Strategy and Environment, Small Business Economics, International Entrepreneurship, and Management Journal as publishing numerous articles on green entrepreneurship. Core journals like Bradford's Law fall under these journals. The top ten cited documents on green entrepreneurship include Kraus S's 'Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Performance: The Mediating Role of Environmental Strategy and Green Innovation'. The UK, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, and the USA have been the most international countries to collaborate on green entrepreneurship, with topics such as institutional entrepreneurship, management, and performance increasing from 2018 to 2022. Sustainable entrepreneurship has gained the most frequency, followed by entrepreneurship and sustainability. Thematic map analysis reveals areas still undeveloped but relevant including Research and Development, Innovation, Technology, education, and industry. Australia and New Zealand have the highest number of collaborations, followed by Austria and Macedonia. Institutions in clusters include De Montfort University, University Kent, and University Manchester, and Cluster 3 includes Leuphana University Luneburg, Brock University, and University Sussex.

The ability to operate a business efficiently, the development of social goodwill (the basis over cordial relationships in the areas in which it operates, personnel, and various other stakeholders), and a continual open discussion cycle (to gather and distribute beneficial knowledge from people in general) have all been identified as benefits of green entrepreneurship in the literature. These are just a few of the numerous possibilities available to organizations with authentic green programs. We also observed that there are certain outstanding problems in the area of green entrepreneurship. The necessity for inclusivity in green entrepreneurship policies, the downside of pollution, and several thorny challenges at the interdisciplinary crossroads have all been identified. These environmental concerns are frequently at the top of development goals along with socio-economic difficulties, so even though environmental entrepreneurship is frequently believed to provide a steady flow of new benefits to developed societies, its role in further less developed regions should be just as important (if not significantly so). Thus, cross-country data in the shape of specific context studies that consider the socioeconomic conditions where sustainable entrepreneurship is placed are critically needed (especially from emerging nations). Government initiatives should be implemented to motivate indigenous and cultural business owners to operate greener businesses by setting goals, granting privileges, creating favourable conditions, offering financial support, exchanging information, and upskilling knowledge. These strategies are urgently needed to spread and popularise all green businesses throughout the economy since green tourist offerings are accessible to all customer strata but sustainable consumption is currently only marketed to elite consumer groups. Overall, the results of this literature review in the field of sustainable entrepreneurship research are quite encouraging. According to the analysis, this area will remain a research interest in the years ahead. It is necessary to do additional studies using a larger body of literature, including newly published works that address other topics linked to the growth of sustainable entrepreneurship.

This report provides a comprehensive overview of green entrepreneurship, highlighting the need for collaboration among nations, organizations, and researchers. It highlights the importance of entrepreneurship, technology, economic growth, innovation, performance, and R&D. The study also highlights the need for a broadening focus and combining various professions in green entrepreneurship. The report provides trends on green entrepreneurship for industry professionals and the government to make informed decisions on policies benefiting green entrepreneurs. The research contributes to the existing knowledge on green entrepreneurship and the development of "ecopreneurship," highlighting the potential for future research in areas such as technology, innovation, performance, determinants, academic entrepreneurship, growth, and research and development.

This work has some flaws, including not completing the evaluation, using the WOS dataset, not including dissertations, book chapters, and books, and focusing on the 2018–2022 years. It is suggested to use Scopus and other datasets for comparison and in-depth analysis. The evaluation may be theory-driven, but the results can serve as a roadmap for further investigation into green entrepreneurs.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

Understanding Sustainable Entrepreneurship Through Bibliometrics Analysis

Status:

Version 1

Abstract

Figures

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Results

3.1 Summary of the data

3.3. Authors

3.4 Top Performing Nations

3.5 Conceptual and social structure analysis

4. Discussions and Conclusions

5. Future research possibilities

References

Additional Declarations

Status:

Version 1