Exploring the pathways to sustainable entrepreneurship – a meta-ethnographic synthesis

The study is a meta-ethnographic review of qualitative results on sustainable entrepreneurship antecedents aimed to (1) identify the drivers of this phenomenon, (2) understand the meaning of the factors by understanding their composition, and (3) identify research gaps for future studies. The study identified and reviewed 27 qualitative studies using a shortened version of Tranfield et al.’s 10-phased protocol. The study attempted to unite isolated related ideas into one, demonstrating their synergistic relationship and improving comprehension of antecedent variables. One of the key pull factors was stakeholder engagement, which the study defined as ‘stakeholder expectation, support and pressure’. The study also identified ‘motivation for personal gains’ as a key push factor, with ‘drives motivated by personality trait, personal circumstance, and desire for independence’ driving its meaning. The synthesis also found conceptual overlaps between motivation frameworks like the Push-Pull Model (PPM), Awareness-Motivation-Capability (AMC) and Motivation-Ability-Opportunity (MAO) models, and that developed economy literature dominates sustainable entrepreneurship. The complex interaction of internal and external variables as inputs in an input-outcome mechanism produced higher-level outcomes. Future research should examine how events unfold to create sustainable entrepreneurs.