IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v9y2017i10p1636-d113053.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Who Takes More Sustainability-Oriented Entrepreneurial Actions? The Role of Entrepreneurs’ Values, Beliefs and Orientations

Author

Listed:
  • Asghar Afshar Jahanshahi

    (CENTRUM Católica Graduate Business School, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima 15023, Peru)

  • Alexander Brem

    (Chair of Technology Management, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) Fürther Str. 246c, 90429 Nuremberg, Germany
    Technology Entrepreneurship and Innovation (TEI), University of Southern Denmark, Alsion 2, 6400 Sønderborg, Denmark)

  • Amitab Bhattacharjee

    (MBA, Independent Researcher, Narsingdi 1600, Bangladesh)

Abstract

We examine the relationships between entrepreneurs’ values, beliefs and orientations with their firms’ engagement in sustainability-oriented entrepreneurial actions, using a sample of 352 newly established businesses from two Asian countries (Bangladesh and Iran). Our results reveal a dual role of entrepreneurs’ values, beliefs and orientations when taking sustainability-oriented actions. We confirm that individual differences in the set of values, beliefs and orientations can foster or hinder the sustainability-oriented actions across organizations. Our paper contributes to the growing literature of sustainable entrepreneurship, by providing answers for recent calls for better understanding which entrepreneurial ventures engage more in sustainability-oriented actions.

Suggested Citation

  • Asghar Afshar Jahanshahi & Alexander Brem & Amitab Bhattacharjee, 2017. "Who Takes More Sustainability-Oriented Entrepreneurial Actions? The Role of Entrepreneurs’ Values, Beliefs and Orientations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-19, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:10:p:1636-:d:113053
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/10/1636/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/10/1636/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Johan Wiklund & Dean Shepherd, 2003. "Aspiring for, and Achieving Growth: The Moderating Role of Resources and Opportunities," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(8), pages 1919-1941, December.
    2. Zahra, Shaker A., 1996. "Technology strategy and new venture performance: A study of corporate-sponsored and independent biotechnology ventures," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 289-321, July.
    3. Nils Plambeck & K. Weber, 2009. "CEO Ambivalence and Responses to Strategic Issues," Post-Print hal-00464009, HAL.
    4. Jamie Collins & Klaus Uhlenbruck & Peter Rodriguez, 2009. "Why Firms Engage in Corruption: A Top Management Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 87(1), pages 89-108, June.
    5. Progress Choongo & Elco Van Burg & Leo J. Paas & Enno Masurel, 2016. "Factors Influencing the Identification of Sustainable Opportunities by SMEs: Empirical Evidence from Zambia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-24, January.
    6. Roland Bénabou & Jean Tirole, 2006. "Belief in a Just World and Redistributive Politics," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(2), pages 699-746.
    7. Ashkanasy, Neal M. & Windsor, Carolyn A. & Treviño, Linda K., 2006. "Bad Apples in Bad Barrels Revisited: Cognitive Moral Development, Just World Beliefs, Rewards, and Ethical Decision-Making," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(4), pages 449-473, October.
    8. Li, Hongbin & Yang, Zheyu & Yao, Xianguo & Zhang, Haifeng & Zhang, Junsen, 2012. "Entrepreneurship, private economy and growth: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 948-961.
    9. Armstrong, J. Scott & Overton, Terry S., 1977. "Estimating Nonresponse Bias in Mail Surveys," MPRA Paper 81694, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Alicia Mas-Tur & Domingo Ribeiro Soriano, 2014. "The level of innovation among young innovative companies: the impacts of knowledge-intensive services use, firm characteristics and the entrepreneur attributes," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 8(1), pages 51-63, March.
    11. Rosalinde J.A. Klein Woolthuis, 2010. "Sustainable Entrepreneurship in the Dutch Construction Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 2(2), pages 1-19, February.
    12. Gema Albort-Morant & Jörg Henseler & Antonio Leal-Millán & Gabriel Cepeda-Carrión, 2017. "Mapping the Field: A Bibliometric Analysis of Green Innovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-15, June.
    13. María-Teresa Méndez-Picazo & Miguel-Ángel Galindo-Martín & Domingo Ribeiro-Soriano, 2012. "Governance, entrepreneurship and economic growth," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(9-10), pages 865-877, December.
    14. Marc Gruber & Ian C. MacMillan & James D. Thompson, 2008. "Look Before You Leap: Market Opportunity Identification in Emerging Technology Firms," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(9), pages 1652-1665, September.
    15. Cohen, Boyd & Winn, Monika I., 2007. "Market imperfections, opportunity and sustainable entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 29-49, January.
    16. Holger Patzelt & Dean A. Shepherd, 2011. "Recognizing Opportunities for Sustainable Development," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 35(4), pages 631-652, July.
    17. Alexander Brem, 2017. "Creativity and routine: conceptual considerations on managing organisational ambidexterity in entrepreneurial ventures," International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 21(3), pages 261-273.
    18. Hall, Jeremy K. & Daneke, Gregory A. & Lenox, Michael J., 2010. "Sustainable development and entrepreneurship: Past contributions and future directions," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 439-448, September.
    19. David Naranjo-Gil, 2016. "The Role of Management Control Systems and Top Teams in Implementing Environmental Sustainability Policies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-12, April.
    20. Jaideep Anand & Raffaele Oriani & Roberto S. Vassolo, 2010. "Alliance Activity as a Dynamic Capability in the Face of a Discontinuous Technological Change," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(6), pages 1213-1232, December.
    21. Daily, Catherine M. & Dalton, Dan R., 1992. "The relationship between governance structure and corporate performance in entrepreneurial firms," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 7(5), pages 375-386, September.
    22. John R. Bryson & Rachel Lombardi, 2009. "Balancing product and process sustainability against business profitability: sustainability as a competitive strategy in the property development process," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(2), pages 97-107, February.
    23. Richard Gentry & Clay Dibrell & Jaemin Kim, 2016. "Long–Term Orientation in Publicly Traded Family Businesses: Evidence of a Dominant Logic," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 40(4), pages 733-757, July.
    24. Riccardo Fini & Rosa Grimaldi & Gian Luca Marzocchi & Maurizio Sobrero, 2012. "The Determinants of Corporate Entrepreneurial Intention within Small and Newly Established Firms," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 36(2), pages 387-414, March.
    25. Y. Lisa Zhao & Michael Song & Gregory L. Storm, 2013. "Founding Team Capabilities and New Venture Performance: The Mediating Role of Strategic Positional Advantages," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 37(4), pages 789-814, July.
    26. Frank Wiengarten & Chris K. Y. Lo & Jessie Y. K. Lam, 2017. "“How does Sustainability Leadership Affect Firm Performance? The Choices Associated with Appointing a Chief Officer of Corporate Social Responsibility”," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 140(3), pages 477-493, February.
    27. Vachon, Stephan & Klassen, Robert D., 2008. "Environmental management and manufacturing performance: The role of collaboration in the supply chain," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(2), pages 299-315, February.
    28. Muñoz, Pablo & Dimov, Dimo, 2015. "The call of the whole in understanding the development of sustainable ventures," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 632-654.
    29. Susanna Falle & Romana Rauter & Sabrina Engert & Rupert J. Baumgartner, 2016. "Sustainability Management with the Sustainability Balanced Scorecard in SMEs: Findings from an Austrian Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(6), pages 1-16, June.
    30. Podoynitsyna, Ksenia & Song, Michael & van der Bij, Hans & Weggeman, Mathieu, 2013. "Improving new technology venture performance under direct and indirect network externality conditions," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 195-210.
    31. Kuckertz, Andreas & Wagner, Marcus, 2010. "The influence of sustainability orientation on entrepreneurial intentions -- Investigating the role of business experience," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 524-539, September.
    32. Domingo Soriano & Gary Castrogiovanni, 2012. "The impact of education, experience and inner circle advisors on SME performance: insights from a study of public development centers," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 333-349, April.
    33. Uy, Marilyn A. & Foo, Maw-Der & Song, Zhaoli, 2013. "Joint effects of prior start-up experience and coping strategies on entrepreneurs’ psychological well-being," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 28(5), pages 583-597.
    34. Nils Plambeck & Klaus Weber, 2009. "CEO Ambivalence and Responses to Strategic Issues," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(6), pages 993-1010, December.
    35. Ching-Hsun Chang, 2011. "The Influence of Corporate Environmental Ethics on Competitive Advantage: The Mediation Role of Green Innovation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 104(3), pages 361-370, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. José Alberto Martínez-González & Carmen Dolores Álvarez-Albelo & Javier Mendoza-Jiménez & Urszula Kobylinska, 2022. "Predicting the Entrepreneurial Behaviour of Starting Up a New Company: A Regional Study Using PLS-SEM and Data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-25, February.
    2. Asghar Afshar Jahanshahi & Alexander Brem & Hussain Gholami, 2019. "Working in a Physically Dangerous Work Environment: Employee Vitality and Sustainable Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-20, September.
    3. Asghar Afshar Jahanshahi & Bakr Al‐Gamrh & Behrooz Gharleghi, 2020. "Sustainable development in Iran post‐sanction: Embracing green innovation by small and medium‐sized enterprises," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(4), pages 781-790, July.
    4. Ana Carolina Bertassini & Aldo Roberto Ometto & Semih Severengiz & Mateus Cecilio Gerolamo, 2021. "Circular economy and sustainability: The role of organizational behaviour in the transition journey," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(7), pages 3160-3193, November.
    5. Nosheena Yasir & Nasir Mahmood & Hafiz Shakir Mehmood & Osama Rashid & An Liren, 2021. "The Integrated Role of Personal Values and Theory of Planned Behavior to Form a Sustainable Entrepreneurial Intention," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-21, August.
    6. Kshitija Joshi & Deepak Chandrashekar & Alexander Brem & Kirankumar S. Momaya, 2019. "Foreign Venture Capital Firms in a Cross-Border Context: Empirical Insights from India," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-20, November.
    7. Shengli Dai & Hongyan Xue & Yuan Jiang & Wei Zhang & Xin Zhang, 2018. "Sustainable Entrepreneurship Team Scale Development: A Complex Systems Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-20, November.
    8. Behrooz Gharleghi & Asghar Afshar Jahanshahi & Khaled Nawaser, 2018. "The Outcomes of Corporate Social Responsibility to Employees: Empirical Evidence from a Developing Country," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-15, March.
    9. Asghar Afshar Jahanshahi & Jianfeng Jia, 2018. "Purchasing Green Products as a Means of Expressing Consumers’ Uniqueness: Empirical Evidence from Peru and Bangladesh," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-17, November.
    10. Asghar Afshar Jahanshahi & Alexander Brem & Mohammad Shahabinezhad, 2018. "Does Thinking Style Make a Difference in Environmental Perception and Orientation? Evidence from Entrepreneurs in Post-Sanction Iran," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-19, May.
    11. Padmaja Argade & Fanny Salignac & Ralf Barkemeyer, 2021. "Opportunity identification for sustainable entrepreneurship: Exploring the interplay of individual and context level factors in India," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(8), pages 3528-3551, December.
    12. José Alberto Martínez-González & Urszula Kobylinska & Francisco J. García-Rodríguez & Lukasz Nazarko, 2019. "Antecedents of Entrepreneurial Intention among Young People: Model and Regional Evidence," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-29, December.
    13. Nathasit Gerdsri & Boonkiart Iewwongcharoen & Kittichai Rajchamaha & Nisit Manotungvorapun & Jakapong Pongthanaisawan & Watcharin Witthayaweerasak, 2021. "Capability Assessment toward Sustainable Development of Business Incubators: Framework and Experience Sharing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-20, April.
    14. Olawale Fatoki, 2022. "Determinants of Employee Electricity Saving Behavior in Small Firms: The Role of Benefits and Leadership," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-20, April.
    15. Asghar Afshar Jahanshahi & Alexander Brem, 2018. "Antecedents of Corporate Environmental Commitments: The Role of Customers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-10, June.
    16. Sascha Kraus & Janina Burtscher & Christine Vallaster & Martin Angerer, 2018. "Sustainable Entrepreneurship Orientation: A Reflection on Status-Quo Research on Factors Facilitating Responsible Managerial Practices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-21, February.
    17. Asghar Afshar Jahanshahi & Alexander Brem, 2017. "Sustainability in SMEs: Top Management Teams Behavioral Integration as Source of Innovativeness," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-16, October.
    18. Tamsin Foucrier & Arnim Wiek, 2019. "A Process-Oriented Framework of Competencies for Sustainability Entrepreneurship," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-18, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Asghar Afshar Jahanshahi & Alexander Brem & Mohammad Shahabinezhad, 2018. "Does Thinking Style Make a Difference in Environmental Perception and Orientation? Evidence from Entrepreneurs in Post-Sanction Iran," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-19, May.
    2. Asghar Afshar Jahanshahi & Alexander Brem, 2017. "Sustainability in SMEs: Top Management Teams Behavioral Integration as Source of Innovativeness," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-16, October.
    3. Nadia A. Abdelmegeed Abdelwahed & Bahadur Ali Soomro & Naimatullah Shah, 2022. "The Role of Environment, Business and Human Behavior towards Entrepreneurial Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-17, February.
    4. Eduard-Gabriel Ceptureanu & Sebastian-Ion Ceptureanu & Mihai Cristian Orzan & Ovidiu Niculae Bordean & Violeta Radulescu, 2017. "Empirical Study on Sustainable Opportunities Recognition. A Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Joinery Industry Analysis Using Augmented Sustainable Development Process Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-36, September.
    5. Agnieszka Konys, 2019. "Towards Sustainable Entrepreneurship Holistic Construct," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-33, November.
    6. Sascha Kraus & Janina Burtscher & Christine Vallaster & Martin Angerer, 2018. "Sustainable Entrepreneurship Orientation: A Reflection on Status-Quo Research on Factors Facilitating Responsible Managerial Practices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-21, February.
    7. Torbjörn Ljungkvist & Jim Andersén, 2021. "A taxonomy of ecopreneurship in small manufacturing firms: A multidimensional cluster analysis," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 1374-1388, February.
    8. Matthew P. Johnson & Stefan Schaltegger, 2020. "Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Development: A Review and Multilevel Causal Mechanism Framework," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 44(6), pages 1141-1173, November.
    9. Fokko J. Eller & Michael M. Gielnik & Hendrik Wimmer & Corinna Thölke & Sara Holzapfel & Silke Tegtmeier & Jantje Halberstadt, 2020. "Identifying business opportunities for sustainable development: Longitudinal and experimental evidence contributing to the field of sustainable entrepreneurship," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 1387-1403, March.
    10. Shengli Dai & Hongyan Xue & Yuan Jiang & Wei Zhang & Xin Zhang, 2018. "Sustainable Entrepreneurship Team Scale Development: A Complex Systems Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-20, November.
    11. Neil Aaron Thompson & Roosje Eijkemans, 2018. "Why Do Sustainable Ventures Fail to Attract Management Talent?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-14, November.
    12. María Huertas González-Serrano & Vicente Añó Sanz & Rómulo Jacobo González-García, 2020. "Sustainable Sport Entrepreneurship and Innovation: A Bibliometric Analysis of This Emerging Field of Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-26, June.
    13. Chang Soo Sung & Joo Y. Park, 2018. "Sustainability Orientation and Entrepreneurship Orientation: Is There a Tradeoff Relationship between Them?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-14, February.
    14. Paula Bajdor & Ilona Pawełoszek & Helena Fidlerova, 2021. "Analysis and Assessment of Sustainable Entrepreneurship Practices in Polish Small and Medium Enterprises," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-28, March.
    15. Aikaterini Argyrou & Nicolas Chevrollier & Andre Nijhof, 2023. "The versatile role of sustainable market entrepreneurs in market transformation: An intervention framework for institutional change," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 259-273, January.
    16. Denise Fischer & Malte Brettel & René Mauer, 2020. "The Three Dimensions of Sustainability: A Delicate Balancing Act for Entrepreneurs Made More Complex by Stakeholder Expectations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 163(1), pages 87-106, April.
    17. Felipe Hernández-Perlines & Nina Rung-Hoch, 2017. "Sustainable Entrepreneurial Orientation in Family Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-16, July.
    18. Yoon, Hyungseok & Tashman, Peter & Benischke, Mirko H. & Doh, Jonathan & Kim, Namil, 2024. "Climate impact, institutional context, and national climate change adaptation IP protection rates," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 39(1).
    19. DiVito, Lori & Bohnsack, René, 2017. "Entrepreneurial orientation and its effect on sustainability decision tradeoffs: The case of sustainable fashion firms," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 569-587.
    20. O'Neil, Isobel & Ucbasaran, Deniz, 2016. "Balancing “what matters to me” with “what matters to them”: Exploring the legitimation process of environmental entrepreneurs," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 133-152.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:10:p:1636-:d:113053. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.