Iterative sustainable opportunity development in established SMEs: a recursive process model

Purpose This longitudinal qualitative study examines how sustainable entrepreneurship opportunities emerge and are enacted within established small firms. While most research focuses on startups or entrepreneurial intentions, far less is known about how opportunities unfold within ongoing businesses. To do so, the study took a micro-foundational approach to capture processes occurring in opportunity development and implementation. The study challenges linear and individualised assumptions and develops an alternative process-based perspective. Design/methodology/approach Quarterly semi-structured interviews, focus groups and review of documentation occurred in six UK small firms over 18 months. This enabled process narratives to be constructed and recursive behaviours to be recognised. Thematic analysis was undertaken iteratively. Findings Findings showed gaps in existing models, which did not adequately explain observed patterns, particularly in relation to iteration, distributed knowledge and the role of digital technologies – these were all found to be key to sustainable opportunity enactment in these existing firms. Research limitations/implications (1) Cases examined were characterised by participative management structures and relatively open communication practices. The distributed recognition mechanism depends upon organisations legitimising bottom-up contributions and knowledge sharing. (2) Digital readiness and technological engagement played a constitutive role in enabling recursive opportunity cycles. In contexts with limited digital capability or restricted connectivity, this may not apply. (3) These firms demonstrated sustained environmental and community-oriented commitments. The model is therefore most directly applicable to sustainability-active SMEs rather than to firms with minimal environmental engagement. (4) In industries with low environmental salience or limited stakeholder scrutiny, the frequency and intensity of opportunity triggers may differ, potentially altering the recursive dynamics described here. Originality/value Rather than a linear progression from recognition to implementation, the study develops a process model of iterative sustainable opportunity development, reconceptualising opportunity recognition and enactment in established SMEs as a recursive, firm-level cycles shaped by distributed knowledge mobilisation, participative management and socio-material infrastructures. It offers three advances: (1) opportunity recognition as collective and distributed, (2) recognition and implementation as intertwined and iterative and (3) digital tools and socio-material infrastructures as central mechanisms.