Sustainable Entrepreneurship as a Field of Knowledge: Analyzing the Global South

Abstract

The objective of this study is to characterize the contribution to sustainable entrepreneurship as a field of knowledge from developing countries, also called the Global South, through the analysis of the literature that has been produced in the last two decades. This research starts from the premise of the dominance of the Global North over academic production on this topic and analyzes the consequences for the Global South. Through VOSViewer software, and Biblioshiny, a web interface of bibliometrix R-package, 1964 articles that were retrieved from the WoS database were analyzed. According to the results, the dominance of the Global North is confirmed, not only by the number of articles (63% vs. 22% of the Global South), but also by the impact on the publications, the publishing systems, and the thematic addressed, among other indicators. Likewise, the low North–South collaboration (15%), and the scarce collaboration networks between Southern countries, were also confirmed. This situation may have affected the formation of a critical mass of Southern researchers to develop their own concepts and address subjects related to sustainable entrepreneurship that are more adjusted to their reality. We did not find significant differences between the Southern and the Northern research themes or the emergence of new concepts from the Global South, despite their different conditions. Finally, a closer look at the thematic trajectory in terms of scholarly production shows a lesser emphasis on sustainability in the Global South than that in the Global North. These findings are discussed herein.