The Role of Sustainable Entrepreneurship in UN Sustainable Development Goals: The Case of TED Talks

Abstract

It can be seen that entrepreneurship has undergone many changes since the time it was defined and many types have been introduced over time as well. A relatively new type is sustainable entrepreneurship, which seeks to function in a way that can be passed down through the generations without endangering nature’s responsiveness. Sustainable entrepreneurs sometimes perform their activities in a way that emphasizes the social aspect, and sometimes in a way that highlights the economic aspect. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) announced by the United Nations in 2015 are expected to correspond to the activities of sustainable entrepreneurs. In order to identify this correspondence, we performed qualitative content analysis of presentations on entrepreneurship in TED Talks. As a result of the analysis, the social and economic aspects of sustainable entrepreneurs were evaluated separately with the SDGs, and strong correlations were determined in some instances. These correlations are expected to provide insight in terms of identifying the topics that sustainable entrepreneurs focus on.