Green entrepreneurship is a critical mechanism for achieving sustainable competitiveness. However, research in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) remains fragmented and descriptive. Existing studies examine policy, technology, or entrepreneurial behavior in isolation, offering limited explanations of how institutional quality, regulatory coherence, and sociocultural dynamics interact to shape green entrepreneurial outcomes. To address this gap, this SLR conducts a systematic literature review guided by PRISMA 2020 and CASP-based quality appraisal, synthesizing evidence from 50 peer-reviewed empirical studies published between 2013 and 2025 using the Scopus and Web of Science databases. Rather than cataloguing prior findings, the analysis identifies the recurrent causal mechanisms underlying green entrepreneurship across the MENA region. The findings demonstrate that green entrepreneurial performance is driven not only by resource endowments but also by the interaction between resource bases, institutional coherence, innovation capabilities, and cultural legitimacy. Strong regulatory frameworks and access to green finance enhance the conversion of Natural Resource-Based View (NRBV) capabilities into green innovation, whereas fragmented governance constrains ecosystem development, particularly outside Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) economies. Building on this synthesis, this SLR introduces the Green Entrepreneurship Ecosystem in MENA (GEEM) framework, which integrates the NRBV, Institutional Theory, and socio-technical systems thinking into a causally structured and empirically testable ecosystem model. The framework specifies exogenous drivers, mediating innovation capabilities, moderating institutional mechanisms, and ecosystem-level outcomes, thereby advancing the literature from thematic classification to an analytical explanation. This SLR concludes by outlining directions for longitudinal and multilevel empirical testing, region-sensitive policy design, and inclusive green entrepreneurship development across heterogeneous MENA contexts for future research.
Agarwal et al. (Mon,) studied this question.