A systematic literature review of sustainable entrepreneurship with thematic analysis

Abstract

PurposeThis paper reviews the literature available on sustainable entrepreneurship along with the terms used interchangeably (as the context demands) and explores the themes research have undertaken to explain the concept across multidisciplinary avenues. The purpose of this literature review is to determine the direction of research in the field of sustainable entrepreneurship. It also enables the author to find out the relevance with similar terminologies, i.e. green entrepreneurship, ecopreneurship, ecological entrepreneuship etc. Also, how various differentiating concepts under the guise of sustainable entrepreneurship contribute to the similar goals on organizational level.Design/methodology/approachScopus and Web of Science databases are explored for research articles including term “sustainable entrepreneurship”. A list of 50 most cited articles is extracted from the results and analyzed for underlying themes and trends in current research. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) standard is used to systematically search articles from two databases and filtering for the most relevant manuscripts.FindingsThe categorization of research articles is conducted to understand the direction of research in this field and the emphasis on specific aspects. Themes identified are further elaborated into subcategories to get to the underlying theme of the research article. The research trend implicates the shift toward practical application and evaluation along with conceptual exploration and analysis which is inherent in any field of research.Originality/valueThe literature review in primarily conducted on two most referred databases, i.e. Scopus and Web of Science, as the search for term “sustainable entrepreneurship” yeilded most results in these databases. Also the methodology adopted focused on the most cited articles in the past two decades to extract the themes and subthemes. This allows the researcher to determine the trends and gaps in the current research.