When Does Opportunity Entrepreneurship Contribute to Sustainable Development? The Synergistic Roles of Digital and Business Ecosystems

ABSTRACT This study examines how opportunity‐driven entrepreneurship supports the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, highlighting the influential contributions of digital infrastructure and ease of doing business (EDB) in 18 emerging economies from 2004 to 2019. Using an instrumental variable Tobit model and sustainability indices derived through principal component analysis, we investigate how institutional and technological contexts condition the contributions of entrepreneurial activity to sustainable development at both aggregated and dimensional levels—economic, social, and environmental. Results reveal that opportunity‐driven entrepreneurship promotes sustainable development, with the strongest effects observed in the economic and social dimensions. Moreover, we find that digital infrastructure—measured through e‐government development, ICT access, and ICT use—positively moderates this relationship. In contrast, while EDB indicators also yield generally positive effects, their interaction with entrepreneurship exhibits more nuanced, context‐dependent results. Specifically, longer registration times and more start‐up procedures, often seen as bureaucratic burdens, are found to contribute positively when they serve to enforce regulatory compliance and promote business formalization. These findings underscore the relevance of integrated policy approaches that develop entrepreneurial ecosystems through digital inclusion and effective regulation. By illustrating the interaction between entrepreneurial motivation, institutional quality, and technological readiness, the present study provides valuable insights for policymakers seeking to leverage entrepreneurship to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in emerging markets.