Abstract This chapter aims to deepen our understanding of the role of entrepreneurs in sustainability and sustainable innovation, as well as the various streams of research addressing these topics. The aim of this chapter is to shed new light on the relationship between sustainability, entrepreneurial initiatives, and innovation, and to provide new knowledge on this emerging topic. This allows us to explore in depth how innovation and sustainability have been studied in the field of entrepreneurship. This choice is linked to the growing importance of entrepreneurship in addressing sustainability and innovation. Sustainable entrepreneurial activities, in fact, represent key factors in implementing and disseminating sustainable innovations, while also addressing environmental and social challenges within markets and society. We have chosen to adopt a bibliometric approach to systematic literature reviews. To achieve this goal, we retrieved 297 articles from Web of Science databases and focused on recent literature from the last 10 years (2015–2024) to increase topicality. The analyses reveal that, although in its infancy, this literature is attracting a growing number of one-time scholars from different disciplines, and the most prominent thematic areas belong to three classes (Entrepreneurship & Ventures, Sustainability & Environment, Innovation & Creativity) with a strong focus on strategic implementation and practical application. The analysis of the co-citations reveals the presence of five main clusters focused on: methodology (case studies), theoretical foundation (dynamic capabilities, entrepreneurial orientation), sustainable entrepreneurship, managerial side of sustainability and innovation, and sustainable business model. Finally, the bibliographic coupling analysis reveals the presence of four main clusters.
Troise et al. (Tue,) studied this question.
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