Sustainable Entrepreneurship for Business Opportunity Recognition: Analysis of an Awareness Questionnaire among Organisations

Abstract

An important challenge for the future is focusing on sustainability in life and business. The three elements of sustainability (economic environmental and social) defined in 17 factors by the United Nations (UN) as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) may therefore be the main drivers of business competitiveness and opportunity recognition. The main aim of the article is to identify the awareness level of sustainability and sustainable development goals in the context of business opportunity areas by analysing the results of a survey of organisations in six countries (Finland Slovakia Italy Austria Spain and Turkey). A multilingual questionnaire administered in six participating countries was used as a collection tool to determine the organisation’s level of awareness regarding the SDGs. A research questionnaire was filled in by 238 respondents providing a cross-cultural view of their attitudes knowledge and future interest in sustainability and the SDGs. The obtained results indicate differences in the approach to sustainability issues the scope of knowledge interest competencies in sustainable development and SDGs and the content of implementation of sustainability and SDGs in organisations in different sectors regions and countries. Further statistical evaluation of the research hypotheses states the significant relationship between the two variables: sustainable strategy and the designation of a responsible employee in each organisation rs = 0.677 (α = 0.05). It is essential to eliminate the gap in the cross-cultural approach and knowledge in engaging with sustainable strategy and its implementation in current and future organisation activities in the context of sustainability and SDGs in order to enhance opportunities for the growth of sustainability-focused entrepreneurship across different sectors and countries. © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.