Unpacking the drivers of the socio-environmental sustainability of new ventures: insights from innovative digital start-ups in Italy

Leonardo Mazzoni () and Silvia Rita Sedita ()
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Leonardo Mazzoni: European University Institute, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies – Centre for a Digital Society
Silvia Rita Sedita: University of Padova

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 2025, vol. 21, issue 1, No 16, 35 pages

Abstract: Abstract Thanks to the pervasive adoption of digital technologies across different industries, “digital-born companies” nowadays play a pivotal role in the current techno-economic scenario. The concurrent sustainability imperative has generated constraints and entrepreneurial opportunities for new ventures. A narrow part of the entrepreneurship literature has analyzed the relationship between the emerging digital phenomenon and the transformative capacity of ICT start-ups as a potential key driver to tackle grand societal challenges due to their ability to alter business models and/or optimize existing resources. Following this line of reasoning, we analyze how strategic orientation and boundary-spanning activities of ICT start-ups relate to their socio-environmental sustainability. Poisson family estimations (negative binomial and zero-inflated negative binomial) of 172 innovative ICT start-ups based in Italy reveal different driving factors of their socio-environmental sustainability. Our work provides novel insights into the sustainability drivers of digital start-ups, suggesting differentiated strategies for entrepreneurs aimed at fostering socio-environmental sustainability as one of their primary goals. Market strategic orientation is more associated with social sustainability, while technological strategic orientation is more associated with environmental sustainability. The development of a wide portfolio of partnerships seems beneficial only for social sustainability, with no effect on environmental sustainability.

Keywords: Digital entrepreneurship; Green sustainability; Social sustainability; ICT start-ups; Boundary spanning; Strategic orientation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s11365-024-01019-8

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