Entrepreneurial Orientation and Business Sustainability: Examining the Roles of Innovation Capability and Market Adaptability Among Start-Ups

This article examines how entrepreneurial orientation contributes to business sustainability among start-ups in Indonesia, with particular attention to the roles of innovation capability and market adaptability. The study is motivated by the strategic importance of new ventures in a rapidly digitalising economy and by the persistent difficulty of translating entrepreneurial initiative into durable economic, social and environmental outcomes. It adopts an integrative review and conceptual-analysis approach, drawing on foundational scholarship on entrepreneurial orientation, the resource-based view and dynamic capabilities, alongside recent empirical and policy evidence relating to Indonesian enterprises and start-up ecosystems. The analysis conceptualises entrepreneurial orientation through innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking, while treating innovation capability as the organisational capacity to convert ideas and knowledge into new or improved products, processes and business models. Market adaptability is framed as the ability to interpret changes in customer preferences, competitive conditions, technology and regulation and to reconfigure resources accordingly. The synthesis indicates that entrepreneurial orientation is unlikely to secure sustainability automatically: its value depends on complementary capabilities that enable ventures to innovate purposefully and adjust to market change. Innovation capability provides the mechanism through which entrepreneurial posture becomes commercially and operationally meaningful, while market adaptability helps ensure that innovation remains relevant under changing conditions. The article develops an integrated conceptual framework and propositions for future empirical testing. It concludes that Indonesian start-ups should combine entrepreneurial initiative with disciplined experimentation, customer intelligence, organisational learning and sustainability-oriented resource allocation. The contribution is conceptual rather than a report of new field data; the propositions require validation using longitudinal or multi-sector evidence from Indonesian start-ups.