Critical Success Factors for Sustainable Entrepreneurship in SMEs: Nigerian Perspective

Abstract

Global developments now place emphasis on sustainability as an obvious goal and sustainable entrepreneurship has become a novel area of entrepreneurship providing the link between sustainability management, entrepreneurial activities and sustainable development. SMEs form major business establishments across different economies and in view of their numbers, they can play significant role in driving sustainable development and could also be effective in receptiveness to environmental and social problems. The participation of entrepreneurial firms in active sustainability disposition tend to tilt more towards large organisations and industries than Small and medium enterprises (SMEs).The focus of the study therefore is to t establish factors that determine the extent to which SMEs can conduct business in a sustainable manner. The research utilized a descriptive method relying solely on review of secondary data and information in exploring theories underpinning entrepreneurship orientation and drivers of sustainable entrepreneurship behaviour among SMEs. Findings revealed that attitudinal, perceptual factors, firm size, sector, ownership, innovative orientation, personality, management skills, motivation, infrastructure, working capital management, and access to finance (amongst others) are critical to sustainable entrepreneurship among SMEs. The relativity of the observed critical factors to the ease of doing business in Nigeria by SMEs towards sustainable entrepreneurship was emphasised in the study. The study recommends the need for governmental agencies and educational establishments to provide adequate information and enlightenment to foster sustainable entrepreneurship among SMEs.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n3s1p338