Sustainable entrepreneurship: another avenue for family business scholarship?

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to review family businesses as a subset of sustainable entrepreneurship. It is intended that another avenue of scholarship for the growing interest in family businesses and their continuity across generations will be outlined. Design/methodology/approach Relevant journal articles were selected and broadly analysed to gather an understanding of the current state of existing sustainable entrepreneurship literature. The main themes extrapolated related to sustainable entrepreneurship and potential directions for future research. Findings Although sustainable entrepreneurship has been traditionally concentrated in the environmental and social responsibility literature, there are emerging paths where family businesses can be considered alongside community-based enterprise. Research limitations/implications The findings suggest that future research into sustaining family businesses across generations could be situated under sustainable entrepreneurship scholarship. Originality/value This paper presents a novel review and summary of recent literature at the juncture of family business and sustainable entrepreneurship. It is useful for directing scholars towards an avenue which has not traditionally had attention from family business researchers.