Sustainable entrepreneurship refers to the economic, social, and environmental value creation across enterprises in Malaysia. When examining sustainable entrepreneurship in Malaysian companies, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which serve as the backbone of the Malaysian economy and account for 97.2% of businesses and generate 38.2% of the gross domestic product, cannot be overlooked. The research is the first study in Malaysia, which extends the entrepreneurial event model to develop a comprehensive research framework to examine and propose suggestions to improve sustainable entrepreneurship in SMEs. A questionnaire was distributed to 400 entrepreneurs from SMEs in central regions in Malaysia, and 300 complete and valid questionnaires were used for the analysis. All constructs in the questionnaire were tested and confirmed to have high convergent validity and high composite reliability. The results show that perceived desirability, perceived feasibility and propensity to act have a positive effect on sustainable entrepreneurship in SMEs. Young entrepreneurs under 40 years old show greater propensity to act on sustainable entrepreneurship compared to older entrepreneurs aged over 40 years old. This research offers practical and theoretical new insights for SMEs, entrepreneurs, employees, and institutions toward improving sustainable entrepreneurship in a developing nation in Asia.

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Objective – Sustainable entrepreneurship is considered to be combined with economic, social, and environmental value creation, and is considered a combination of social enterprise and environmental enterprise. The small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia are without exception. However, due to the lack of research, the existing literature has not yet provided sufficient explanation for the establishment of sustainable entrepreneurship in Malaysian SMEs. This research included an introduction that gives an overview of the research, continued by the review of existing literature that correlates to the research topic followed by the methodology adopted for this research. Methodology – Specifically, this research extends the Entrepreneurial Event Model to test the proposed framework. To test the research framework and to achieve the research objectives, the survey questionnaire was used to collect the primary data of 200 respondents (entrepreneurs from Malaysian SMEs). The research used Analysis of Moment Structure (AMOS) and Statistical Package of Social Science (SPSS) to encode and analyse the main data collected in this study. Findings – This research's findings revealed that the developed model was sustainable. All the constructs were reliable and valid, and the value was acceptable. The research novelty present in the paper regarding many researchers pay little attention to the key factors that affect the sustainable entrepreneurial ability of SMEs. At this point, this study had proposed a new variable such as environmental awareness and examined its impact on sustainable entrepreneurship performance. Furthermore, the research also provides references for future practical and theoretical contributions. Novelty – This research provides new and important insights for SMEs, entrepreneurs, employees, and institutions through empirical testing of the framework, thereby contributing to knowledge. Type of Paper: Empirical JEL Classification: L21, L26, M19 Keywords: Sustainable Entrepreneurship; Perceived Desirability; Perceived Feasibility; Propensity to Act; Environmental Awareness Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Fong, C.W; Yen, Y.Y; Ramasamy, S. (2022). Sustainable Entrepreneurship in SMEs, J. Bus. Econ. Review, 7(1), 92–102. https://doi.org/10.35609/jber.2022.7.1(4)

Sustainable entrepreneurship is considered to be combined with economic, social, and environmental value creation, and is considered a combination of social enterprise and environmental enterprise. When creating sustainable entrepreneurs in the community, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are significant substances that can't be overlooked. This is because they have made significant commitments to the economic advancement of a nation. The SMEs in Malaysia are without exception. When creating sustainable entrepreneurs in Malaysia, SMEs are significant elements that can't be disregarded. However, due to the lack of research, the existing literature has not yet provided sufficient explanation in the establishment of sustainable entrepreneurship in Malaysian SMEs. This research included an introduction that gives an overview of the research, continued by the review of existing literature that correlates to the research topic followed by the methodology adopted for this research. Specifically, this research extends the Entrepreneurial Event Model, Social Identity Theory, and Social Capital Theory to test the proposed framework. To test the research framework and achieve the research objectives, the survey questionnaire was used to distribute the primary data to 400 respondents (entrepreneurs from Malaysian SMEs). The research used Analysis of Moment Structure (AMOS) and Statistical Package of Social Science (SPSS) to encode and analyse the main data collected in this study. Furthermore, the research also provides references for future practical and theoretical contributions. This research provide new and important insights for SMEs, entrepreneurs, employees, and institutions through empirical testing of the testing framework, thereby contributing to knowledge. Keywords: Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs), Sustainable Entrepreneurship, Perceived Behavioural Control, Age, Perceived Desirability, Perceived Feasibility, Propensity to Act, Environmental Awareness, Psychological Capital, Self- Categorization, Social Networks, Reciprocity