Abstract
Entrepreneurship represents the very basis of powerful societies and the essence of robust economies, bringing unique contributions to both sustainable development and economic growth processes. In addition, corporate social responsibility constitutes the key ingredient for all businesses, encouraging competitiveness, ensuring performance, and enabling excellence, while promising a safe and sustainable environment. On one hand, this chapter reviews the theory on sustainable and responsible entrepreneurship as the core of environmental and societal success, and on the other hand, it focuses on the manner in which intangible business assets and intellectual capital yield creativity, innovation, motivation, productivity, and value in challenging times (COVID-19 pandemic). This multidisciplinary study, based on quantitative and qualitative indicators, reports that intellectual capital factor plays a dominant role in constructing new products, rules, and services for the marketplace and highlights the main economic, social, and environmental effects of current business practices.
TopIntroduction
Nowadays, sustainable and responsible entrepreneurship has managed to become a major challenge and a paramount concern for both developed and developing countries, while seeking for the key drivers of performance has managed to occupy a top priority and a leading target for all emerging and emergent markets.
Under these given circumstances, entrepreneurship represents the very basis of all dominant and powerful societies and the very essence of robust and resilient economies, bringing unique contributions to both sustainable development and economic growth processes.
In addition, corporate social responsibility constitutes the key ingredient for all businesses worldwide, brining competitive advantages and encouraging competitiveness, ensuring performance and enabling excellence, while promising a safe and sustainable environment.
On one hand, this chapter reviews the theory on sustainable and responsible entrepreneurship seen as the core of environmental and societal success, and on the other hand, this work focuses on the manner in which intangible business assets and intellectual capital yield creativity, initiate innovation, arouse motivation, generate productivity, and increase value, in challenging times (with a particular emphasis on these current times, namely COVID - 19 pandemic).
Nevertheless, this multidisciplinary study, which contains research based on quantitative and qualitative indicators, reports that intellectual capital factor plays a dominant role in constructing new products, rules and services for the marketplace, and highlights the main economic, social, and environmental effects of current business practices not only at a national, but also at an international level.
The central question (the main Research Question - RQ) in this book chapter asks how sustainable and responsible entrepreneurship will be able to influence in a positive and constructive manner the 21st - century organizational landscape, while emphasizing human and intellectual capital importance and roles as drivers for performance management at a global level.
In particular, this scientific research paper, will also examine six secondary research questions derived from the main aforementioned question:
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(RQ1) what does sustainable and responsible entrepreneurship stand for?
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(RQ2) what influences does sustainable and responsible entrepreneurship have on today’s organizational landscape?
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(RQ3) which are the opportunities, challenges and uncertainties brought by sustainable and responsible entrepreneurship during the current COVID - 19 pandemic?
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(RQ4) what influence do tangible and intangible assets have and in which way are these assets able to influence the role, importance and implications for sustainable and responsible entrepreneurship?
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(RQ5) does entrepreneurship represent a key solution in increasing sustainable development worldwide and which are the ways of increasing performance through intellectual capital in challenging times?
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(RQ6) which are the main solutions and recommendations due to be considered while addressing the need for sustainable and responsible entrepreneurship, when focusing on the influence of intellectual capital?
Key Terms in this Chapter
Intellectual Capital: Is acknowledged as a dominant and powerful intangible asset of organizations, strongly connected to performance management and human capital, having a positive influence on development, growth and inclusive sustainable and responsible entrepreneurship methods, models, and strategies.
Sustainability: Is a dominant concept in today’s society, as it addresses the needs belonging to human beings and future generations to come, eco-systems and bio-systems, and environment, while being influenced by numerous components and factors, such as intellectual capital—as a key trigger for inclusive and resilient business models—, human, social, and organizational capital—as main sources for competitive advantages—, and organizational performance—as major accomplishment when referring to corporate social responsibility, good governance, good business practices, ethics, transparency, diligent, and correct business behaviour.
Performance Management: Is seen as crucial for organizations’ worldwide, since it helps entities to embrace all opportunities and all possibilities, and it empowers companies to value intangible assets - more specifically, intellectual capital, focusing on creativity, education, information, innovation, knowledge, new technologies and ground - braking techniques, in order to encompass present and future challenges.
Sustainable and Responsible Entrepreneurship: Represents a major asset to all entities these days, especially when analysed together with intangible assets, intellectual capital, human capital, innovation, and creativity, positive impact of intangible assets and entities higher performance.
Human Capital: Is regarded as a multilevel and multidimensional concept, tackling people’s specific characteristics and intellectual qualities that are able to empower organizations prevail in challenging times, aiding entities to react to different market challenges and changes, adapt to all forms of environment and strive to successfully meet consumers’ expectations and needs.