Sustainable entrepreneurship: Factors influencing opportunity recognition and exploitation

Abstract

Sustainable entrepreneurship integrates economic, environmental, and social into a firm's goals, activities, and planning to create a long-term value for the firm, its stakeholders, and broader society. The firm's strategies are formulated and executed to meet the firm's needs and its stakeholders while protecting, sustaining, and enhancing the natural resources that will be needed in the future. The COVID-19 pandemic was a wake-up call regarding external uncertainty that impacted all small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Leveraging this context, this study aims to assess the external and internal factors that influence sustainable opportunity recognition through interviews with twelve sustainable entrepreneurs in the USA and Canada. Based on the results, future research directions and recommendations have been made.