From External Relational Resources to Sustainable Entrepreneurship Practices in Emerging Markets: The Ethical Role of Dynamic Capabilities

This paper investigates how external relational resources, namely business and political ties, drive sustainable entrepreneurship (SE) practices in Turkish SMEs operating under institutional fragility. The study applies PLS‐SEM to survey data from 257 employees of sustainability‐engaged firms, based on their evaluations. Results show that both business and political ties significantly strengthen dynamic capabilities, which in turn predict four dimensions of sustainable entrepreneurship: employee‐friendly, social‐solidarity, energy‐saving, and environmentally friendly practices. Inclusive leadership, however, does not moderate these relationships, revealing a boundary condition for leadership theory in network‐dependent contexts. The study contributes to SE research by showing how dynamic capabilities connect external relational resources with sustainability‐oriented practices in an institutionally fragile emerging‐market context, while also highlighting the ethical implications of how these resources are used.