https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2859-9732
Introduction
“Our Common Future” was the theme for the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) report published in 1987, placing sustainable development in the public spotlight and garnering it attention from governments worldwide (Brundtland, Citation1987). This effort, sponsored by the United Nations (UN) and chaired by Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, examined the causes and consequences of environmental degradation and crafted interconnected policy solutions focusing on three pillars: social justice, economic development, and environmental issues. The essence of sustainable development sits at the nexus of meeting the needs and aspirations of the present without destroying or compromising the resources needed for future generations (Brundtland, Citation1987; Keeble, Citation1988; Lélé, Citation1991). While sustainable development is part of our daily lexicons, predominant in social media and newspaper headlines, and constantly mentioned in speeches and calls for action by world leaders, the reality remains that numerous arduous paths lie ahead to ensure a sustainable future for generations to come. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was proposed in 2015 by the United Nations (United Nations, Citation2015), offering a comprehensive framework with actionable target goals aimed at achieving sustainability across 17 core areas. However, last year, Dennis Francis, the President of the United Nations General Assembly, drew the world’s attention to the fact that “To date, only 15% of the SDG targets are on track, and nearly one-third have stalled or gone into reverse.” (President of the United Nations General Assembly [@UN_PGA], Citation2023, September 20). Therefore, the efforts to achieve sustainable development continue to be urgent and a priority that requires individual, societal, regional, and global agency.
In the scope of sustainable development, the role of communities as a complex shared space or localeFootnote1 of common interests, values, beliefs, or characteristics (Blay-Palmer, Citation2011; Muthuri et al., Citation2009) has gained significant relevance as an entity and level of agency for promising sustainability-related actions and activities. A sustainable community is a shared place or space that unites people based on ecological balance, community self-reliance, and participatory agency (Roseland, Citation2005). They are driven by present and future-oriented values, focused on satisfying the diverse needs of all residents, contributing to a better and equitable quality of life for all, with fair opportunities for all families, driven by principles and values of the environment, society and economy (Kearns & Turok, Citation2003). Therefore, a sustainable community uses nature’s resources wisely to meet people’s needs without harming the environment for future generations, takes care of its residents, encourages diversity, creativity, and safety, provides people with a sense of shared responsibility and participatory decision-making, and foster the cooperation and competition among businesses, industries and institutions in an environmentally conscious, financially feasible and socially accountable way, that can give back to the community (Rogers & Ryan, Citation2001).
A critical mechanism for building and growing sustainable communities is entrepreneurship and innovation. New ventures, startups, and companies play a critical role in developing sustainable communities (Muthuri et al., Citation2012), particularly entrepreneurial activities that are aligned with the principles of the environment, society and economy. The next section explores the critical domains of entrepreneurship and innovation to inform sustainable communities. Then, we describe pressing research avenues on the verge of entrepreneurship and innovation related to sustainable communities. We hope this will inspire scholars to pursue relevant and impactful research on this important topic and contribute to sustainable development.
Harnessing entrepreneurship and innovation for environmental, social, and economic purposes
Entrepreneurship is a transformative and empowering mechanism for individuals, communities and societies (Rindova et al., Citation2009; Morris & Santos, Citation2024). Either adopting a focus on environmental issues (e.g. Dean & McMullen, Citation2007; Holt, Citation2011; Jolink & Niesten, Citation2015; Meek et al., Citation2010), social aspects (e.g. Bacq & Janssen, Citation2011; Haugh, Citation2007; Hill et al., Citation2010; Kroeger & Weber, Citation2014), or integrating sustainability with economic and non-economic benefits (e.g. Belz & Binder, Citation2017; Hockerts & Wüstenhagen, Citation2010; Shepherd & Patzelt, Citation2011) entrepreneurship has a critical role in sustainable development at micro-, meso- and macro-levels (see Johnson & Schaltegger, Citation2020 and Anand et al., Citation2021 for reviews).
Sustainable entrepreneurship focuses “on the preservation of nature, life support, and community in the pursuit of perceived opportunities to bring into existence future products, processes, and services for gain, where gain is broadly construed to include economic and non-economic gains to individuals, the economy, and society” (Shepherd & Patzelt, Citation2011, p. 142). Hence, sustainable entrepreneurship is linked to other research domains (Shepherd & Patzelt, Citation2011), namely environmental entrepreneurship (or ecopreneurship), which examines how new businesses help to protect the natural environment, such as the earth, biodiversity, and ecosystems (Vedula et al., Citation2022); social entrepreneurship which is “the process of identifying, evaluating and exploiting opportunities aiming at social value creation by means of commercial, market-based activities and of the use of a wide range of resources” (Bacq & Janssen, Citation2011, p. 388); and aspects of corporate social responsibility related to the alignment between business ethics and social expectations of the firm (Zenisek, Citation1979). Addressing entrepreneurship and innovation within, for or by sustainable communities requires focusing on at least one of these research streams, even though interdisciplinary approaches, knowledge integration, cross-pollination and scholarly diversity are needed (Anand et al., Citation2021).
Entrepreneurship fosters economic vitality within, for and by sustainable communities through encouraging individuals to identify opportunities that create ventures to tap into local needs and market gaps, leading to job creation, new opportunities, and wealth distribution across the community. Importantly, entrepreneurial efforts aligned with the principles of sustainable communities prioritize sustainability by adopting environmentally friendly practices, creating sustainable business models, promoting social responsibility, and supporting local entrepreneurial ecosystems (e.g. Neumeyer & Santos, Citation2018). Community enterprises, community-based entrepreneurship, or community entrepreneurship are also critical aspects that fit in the scope of sustainable communities, as these organizations “engage in commercial activity and operate for the development of a local community by bringing economic, social, and environmental benefits” (Buratti et al., Citation2022, p. 376). Therefore, entrepreneurship and social impact have a critical role in creating value for the communities, in the communities, with the communities, enabled by the communities, and driven by the communities, through both different types of formalization and agency (Bacq et al., Citation2022).
Innovation is a key driver to developing entrepreneurial solutions to sustainable development challenges and within sustainable communities (see Azmat et al., Citation2023 for a review). Technological advancements, process and product innovations, or novel business models enable communities to overcome barriers, optimize resource utilization, and enhance resilience in the face of environmental, economic and social pressures (e.g. Park et al., Citation2022). Within the scholarly literature, innovation for sustainable development emerged as a more contemporary area of study, leveraging the complex, dynamic, and uncertain nature of all types of innovations as a valuable knowledge space to address sustainability (Seyfang & Smith, Citation2007). Specifically, environmental innovation is essential to address biodiversity and climate challenges impacting societies and communities, including pollution, waste management, ozone layer depletion, and consequences of climate change such as sea-level rise, extreme weather events, and impacts on food availability and supply chains. For instance, innovations in renewable energy, waste management, agriculture, and transportation can significantly reduce environmental impact while improving the quality of life for residents of communities. Social innovation is also critical to addressing social challenges, such as poverty, social exclusion, corruption, human rights violations, and conflict-induced immigration. Social innovations are critical to empower individuals and groups, promote social inclusion and equity, foster collaboration and networking, integrate environmental sustainability, and build resilience within sustainable communities. Silvestre and Ţîrcă (Citation2019) offer a typology of innovations for sustainable development that distinguishes between social innovations, sustainable innovations and green innovations, which is helpful to guide future work on innovation and sustainable communities.
In the “Entrepreneurship and Innovation” section of Sustainable Communities, we welcome scholarly work that explores topics related to sustainable, social, environmental, community-based entrepreneurship and innovation or any intersection of these. In the next section, we present some ideas to inspire future work in entrepreneurship and innovation in the scope of sustainable communities.
Perspectives for research at the nexus of sustainable communities and entrepreneurship and innovation
Building on the discussion above, the Entrepreneurship and Innovation section of Sustainable Communities aims to advance cross-disciplinary scholarship with respect to entrepreneurship, innovation and sustainability. We welcome high-quality interdisciplinary research, including business, economics, environmental sciences, social sciences, and technology, to foster a holistic understanding of how entrepreneurship and innovation can drive positive change within sustainable communities. This section seeks to build interdisciplinary research between these critical domains and explore the transformative potential they hold for addressing pressing sustainability challenges from a global and community level.
Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) the following: sustainable entrepreneurship; community-based entrepreneurship; innovative sustainable business models; social innovation and social entrepreneurship; local sustainable supply chains; rural entrepreneurship and agriculture; cooperative and collective entrepreneurship; green innovation for local entrepreneurship and communities; community-based, cultural and creative entrepreneurship; indigenous entrepreneurship and traditional knowledge; macro and micro-foundations in sustainability, entrepreneurship and innovation; and adversity and poverty in entrepreneurship. Within these topics, it is critical to clarify and define theoretical conceptualizations of main constructs, adopt sound theories, and explore antecedents, outcomes, mechanisms, and boundary conditions of critical phenomena.
It is particularly important to adopt perspectives and approaches that consider the nuances of context (Welter, Citation2011), time (Lévesque & Stephan, Citation2020), and the different types of entrepreneurial ventures (Morris et al., Citation2018). As an open system, research also need to consider the different nested layers of entities, such as individuals, teams, groups, communities, types of ventures, organizations, institutions, and governmental agencies that dynamically interact within sustainable communities. Therefore, it is important to capture such a multilevel perspective that entails top-down influences, bottom-up effects and cross-level effects (Anand et al., Citation2021; Santos & Caetano, Citation2020).
The complexities of entrepreneurship and innovation within sustainable communities will also benefit from the theoretical integration of the principles that inform business, economics, environmental sciences, social sciences, and technology disciplines. Hertel et al. (Citation2019) study on the process of emergence of community-based enterprises in Bavaria, Germany, provides an example of theoretical integration from different disciplines. Discipline-specific annual reviews are typically useful for scholars who want to integrate different theoretical backgrounds (see Botelho et al., Citation2024; Ergene, Banerjee, & Hoffman, Citation2021; Frese & Gielnik, Citation2023).
Conclusion
The challenges of sustainable development, especially in the face of the current numerous crises worldwide, including ecological catastrophes, inequalities, political and racial unrests, and wars, bring urgency to all stakeholders in implementing actions to ensure life for future generations. Sustainable communities are a critical context for fostering sustainability-related actions and initiatives, where the creation of new ventures plays crucial roles as a transformative mechanism for driving positive social, economic and environmental change.
The Entrepreneurship and Innovation section of Sustainable Communities, the recently launched open-access journal from Taylor and Francis, is the premier outlet for scholarly contributions in this space. As an open-access journal, we welcome impactful, relevant, and engaged work that directly impacts practice and informs policymakers of the latest scientific findings relevant to assist in their decision-making processes. We value evidence-based efforts (Frese et al., Citation2014), thematic systematic literature reviews (Champenois et al., Citation2020) with policy implications, and translational frameworks (Muñoz & Dimov, Citation2023) that contribute to bridging the gap between research and practice. We look forward to launching and growing this new scholarly outlet that will positively contribute to “Our Common Future” through entrepreneurship and innovation within sustainable communities.
Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
[email protected]
Disclosure statement
There are no relevant financial or non-financial competing interests to report.
Notes
1 See Dunham et al. (Citation2006) for a typology of communities: place, interest, virtual and practice; and Bacq et al. (Citation2022) for a typology of communities of place, identity, fate, interest and practice.
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