Sustainable entrepreneurship has become a central topic in research, although there exists a lack of study between the approaches to internationalization in sustainable businesses. This chapter aims at providing an examination of the relationship between SE and internationalization. In this way, the question of how and why firms involved in SE enter international markets, their challenges and difficulties in the process, and the different pathways are explored. Especially, the focus lies on the impact of SE involvement on the engagement in an international process. To achieve this goal, two main streams of literature are used: internationalization theories and sustainable entrepreneurship theory. The discussion section offers some future research questions worth studying.
TopIntroduction
The concept of sustainability has entered economic field, becoming a frequent topic in the business research. Since the study of Elkington (1994) that introduced the concept of triple bottom line (TBL), the aspects of environment and society are tied with the economic profit. Over the last years, the concern for sustainable issues has increased, not only in society, but also the main economic agents, that is firms, are aware of the concept (Domínguez-Escrig, Mallén-Broch, Lapiedra-Alcamí, & Chiva-Gómez, 2018). Thus, firms must face other aspects that are different from financial traditional profitability, being spurred to sustainable development.
With this regard, research has emphasized the relevance of entrepreneurship to firms as a way to adapt to the current business landscape, capitalizing on their ability to innovate and react to threats (Al Omoush, Al-Qirem, & Al Hawatmah, 2018; Kirkwood & Walton, 2010). Moreover, entrepreneurship is said to raise businesses above the threshold of sustainability (Hull, Hung, Hair, Perotti, & DeMartino, 2007; Scheepers, Hough, & Bloom, 2007; White, 2009; Zahra, 2015) in the extent to which innovative sustainability strategy is related to entrepreneurial business strategy for growth in situations regarded as highly competitive (Hull et al., 2007; White, 2009; Zhang & Dhaliwal, 2009; Ligthelm, 2010; Raymondet, Bergeron, Croteau, & St-Pierre, 2015).
Research has drawn attention to the connection between the concepts of sustainability and entrepreneurship, emerging the concept of sustainable entrepreneurship (SE). According to Isaak (2002, p. 81), it could be understood as a venturing activity in “an existential form of business behaviour committed to ecological sustainability”. Although not only the environmental sustainability, the objective of SE is thought to be the preservation of nature, life support and community. Moreover, perceived opportunities are those that bring products, processes and services taking into consideration economic profit for the business and gains to individuals, the economy and society (Shepherd & Patzelt, 2011). In such a way, what differs SE from the traditional entrepreneurship is the sustainable and ecological mindfulness (Hechavarría, 2016). Additionally, traditional aspects of product/process innovation and market innovation related to entrepreneurship are considered, as well as moral dimensions.
This fact put sustainable businesses (firms and entrepreneurs) in the spotlight of the sustainable development of most economies in the world, becoming SE as a vehicle to transform the current economy into sustainable economy (Shepherd & Patzelt, 2011). In addition to the relevance of SE in economy, there is a belief that sustainable business should be fostered in order to get a global committed to sustainable development.