Exploring Green Entrepreneurship: Clarifying Conceptual Overlaps and Distinctions With Sustainability‐Related Entrepreneurship

Increasing global emphasis on sustainability has positioned green entrepreneurship as a key mechanism for aligning business with environmental responsibility. Despite growing research, green entrepreneurship remains conceptually fragmented, with overlapping constructs and inconsistent definitions, which may have constrained theoretical and empirical progress. This study aims to clarify the conceptual boundaries, characteristics, and integrative components of green entrepreneurship, addressing questions regarding its evolution and distinctions from related concepts. This systematic, multi‐method review combines bibliometric analysis, topic modeling, and qualitative synthesis. Findings reveal a research shift from environmental entrepreneurship and ecopreneurship to green entrepreneurship and circular entrepreneurship. We also propose a definition of green entrepreneurship and distinguish it from related sustainability‐oriented entrepreneurship constructs by drawing conceptual boundaries. We further develop a multi‐level framework incorporating green entrepreneurship's core components. By clarifying key concepts and structuring existing knowledge, this review provides a more cohesive understanding of green entrepreneurship and highlights directions for future inquiry.