Sustainopreneurship and E-Entrepreneurship: A Strategic Perspective

Introduction

Economic and social sustainability in the 21^st century is severely constrained by global issues posed by dynamic environmental forces and COVID-19 pandemic, mandating a completely new global order to resolve the crisis. Business and GDP growth prospects look miserable under such uncertain conditions, although proliferation of digitization, automation and advanced information and communication technology has introduced new opportunities for doing business and creating economic value. Entrepreneurship is a crucial driver at this juncture, that can drive a society and economy towards a more sustainable future (Belz & Binder, 2017). In this business context, entrepreneurship models like Sustainopreneurship can be a boon for uplifting the economy and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (Abrahamsson, 2007). Sustainopreneurship model can bring about a paradigm shift in e-entrepreneurship leading to enduring sustainability of business processes and resolve the social issues like unemployment, poverty, social exclusion, environmental degradation, economic development and triple bottom line (Bell & Stellingwerf, 2012).

The advent of internet revolution and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, virtual reality, Internet of Things, cloud computing, digital infrastructure and blockchain technologies has led to wide range of disruption and evolutionary trends in less bounded entrepreneurial business models, innovation, products/processes, entrepreneurial behavior and locus of entrepreneurial agency in idea creation (Nambisan, 2017; Boutetiere and Reich, 2018; Nambisan, 2019); introducing new opportunities for doing business and creating economic value (Amit and Zott, 2001; Lumpkin, and Dess, 2004; Hausberg, et al., 2019). The impact of internet technology revolution is witnessed in the transition from analogue to digital technologies, which has created a galaxy of innovative products and business ideas, besides transforming the strategic perspective of doing business (Lumpkin and Dess, 2004; Fitzgerald et al., 2014). The rapid technological progression in the Net Economy has led to the mushrooming of e-ventures by adopting the electronic-ICT based business models for realizing higher economic value (Kollman, 2006) leading to the evolution of the e-entrepreneurship model (Matlay, 2004). The beginning of 21^st century witnessed the trend towards virtual business models, digital business processes and e-commerce forming up the core of e-entrepreneurship model along with social and eco-friendly concepts and processes. This strategic evolution in entrepreneurial trends is believed to occur in response to the need of sustainability and fast growth amidst the doldrums of global business environment and volatile economy in the second decade of the 21^st century. The interest in digital entrepreneurship has been soaring since then due to the convenience, efficiency, low cost, massive access to markets and socio-ecological impact. This has eventually led to increasing rate of entrepreneurial ventures based on internet and ICT as the core or supporting elements in the business model (Bharadwaj et al., 2013; Younis et al., 2020).

Sustainopreneurship can result in upgradation of social, environmental and economic conditions and bring dramatic results in e-entrepreneurial ventures as both models are revolutionary in streamlining the business processes with less cost, efforts and resources. The ‘Digital India’ and ‘Start-up India’ campaign initiated by the Indian government since 2015 has resulted in remarkable transformations in the field of entrepreneurship by the implementation of effective governance in e-commerce (Padhy & Mishra, 2017). As per a report by Bank of America Merrill Lynch (Economic Times, 2015), the net value of e-commerce sector in India will be $220 billion in terms of GMV by 2025. However, the concern is how these e-entrepreneurship ventures remain sustainable in long term and help in achieving SDGs through Sustainopreneurship model. Thus, the study focusses on this need and attempts to present a plethora of literature on sustainopreneurship, clear understanding of problem context and a conceptual model that can be adopted as a blueprint to execute sustainable entrepreneurial model.