Evaluating the Enablers of Green Entrepreneurship in Circular Economy: Organizational Enablers in Focus

Abstract

In recent decades, green entrepreneurship has been at the center of attention as an effective strategy to maintain sustainability and create a competitive advantage for organizations in a circular economy. However, the successful implementation of this strategy requires organizations to have internal enablers. This study endeavored to identify and evaluate organizational enablers for green entrepreneurship in manufacturing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Iran. Identifying organizational enablers can help SMEs in facilitating the conditions for adopting green entrepreneurship. To these ends, organizational enablers were extracted by reviewing the literature and then, using the viewpoints of 17 active experts in different industries in SMEs, they were classified. In the next step, the “Best Worst Method” was employed to prioritize the identified enablers (5 factors) and sub-enablers (20 factors). The contextual hierarchical relationships between these factors were identified through the “Interpretive Structural Modeling” method. Using the Matrix of Cross-Impact Multiplications Applied to Classification (MICMAC) analysis, the driving and dependence powers of organizational enablers were computed and the enablers were clustered. Based on the results, among the five enablers, three including total quality management, circular supply chain management, and corporate social responsibility were the most important from the point of view of the experts. Moreover, among the sub-enablers, strategic planning, green purchasing, and corporate social responsibility motivation were more important than other sub-enablers. The results of ISM analysis provided a seven-level hierarchical model and the relationships between them. The results of the MICMAC analysis led to the clustering of 20 organizational enablers in three main clusters: driving (nine factors), linkage (four factors), and dependent (seven factors). The results of this study provide practical suggestions for active senior managers to implement green entrepreneurship in SMEs.

Transforming Trash into Treasure Troves: SMEs Co-Create Industrial Ecology Ecosystems with Government

“…It validates evidence from overseas where one study discovered public subsidies positively and significantly promoted innovation input and output of 2600 Chinese SMEs [46], and another study indicated research and innovation funding benefitted 1860 European Union SMEs [47]. Recent research from a study in Iran underscores that green entrepreneurship can be a strategically effective way to foster circularity, but organizational enablers are required to adopt such entrepreneurship in manufacturing SMEs [48].…”

Hecare: Sustainability Start-Up Innovation Based on Circular Economy Through Processing Food Waste Into Products With High Use Value

“…This supply chain refers to supply chain management for food waste that can be carried out systematically and relevant to the existing industrial supply chain. A recent study in circular supply chain management (CSCM) explained that supply chain management and natural and industrial ecosystems around it should count the circular thinking (Soleimani et al, 2023). In CSCM, technical materials are recovered automatically, and biological materials are regenerated through extensive innovation in business models and supply chain operations (Rai et al, 2019).…”

Analysing the Barriers of Strategic Entrepreneurship: A DEMATEL Approach

“…Suriyankietkaew et al [3], through a bibliometric review, illustrated how strategic management can be used to achieve all three dimensions of sustainability. Entrepreneurship has, as its primary objectives, the expansion of an enterprise and the generation of wealth [4,5]. This is true for all economic types, whether developed or developing [6].…”