Sustainability orientation and firm growth as ventures mature

Valery Chistov, Nekane Aramburu, María Eugenia Fabra Florit, Iñaki Peña‐Legazkue and Pauline Weritz

Business Strategy and the Environment, 2023, vol. 32, issue 8, 5314-5331

Abstract: This article revisits the dilemma between sustainability orientation and a firm's growth along the stages of the entrepreneurial process. We draw upon the recent research on sustainable entrepreneurship to determine whether entrepreneurial ventures can pursue sustainability objectives and still grow in terms of turnover and employment. Based on the data of 2 370 firms, we conclude that the relationship between sustainability orientation and a venture's growth is not straightforward. The results show that the stage of the entrepreneurship life cycle matters and that only the introduction of sustainability objectives in the mature stage of the entrepreneurial process (rather than during the early stage) significantly increases the likelihood of such ventures growing. We also find empirical evidence against combining environmental and social dimensions under one umbrella of sustainability, as each of these dimensions demonstrated distinctive behavior in our models. While our results show the importance of innovation for the firm's growth, it is not evident that it exerts any significant moderation effect on the relationship between sustainability orientation and a venture's growth. These findings provide insightful evidence for policymakers about the intrinsic difficulty of reconciling sustainability and economic objectives at the early stages of the process of entrepreneurship and also about the need to differentiate the multiple meanings and forms of sustainability orientation.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.3418

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:32:y:2023:i:8:p:5314-5331

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://onlinelibrary ... 1002/(ISSN)1099-0836

Access Statistics for this article

Business Strategy and the Environment is currently edited by Richard Welford

More articles in Business Strategy and the Environment from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().