Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Supplier Stakeholders: Creating Value for Sustainable Development

Abstract The understanding of social challenges and natural resource limitations by enterprises has spurred the creation of a new kind of entrepreneurism that focuses on strategies aligned with sustainable development dimensions. Recently, theoretical studies have highlighted that the creation of value between an enterprise and its stakeholders is a necessary condition for the sustainability of the business. In such a context, this paper aims to analyse how the interrelation between enterprises that meet criteria of sustainable entrepreneurship and their supplier stakeholders influence the creation of values that contribute to sustainable development. For this purpose this paper used a qualitative approach based on multiple case studies that investigated four enterprises and two of their respective suppliers. The results showed that the interrelationships between the studied companies and their supplier stakeholders influence the creation of values that contribute to sustainable development in that mutual interests related to the three dimensions (environmental, social and economic) are considered.

摘要 企业对社会挑战与自然资源约束的认知，催生了一类以契合可持续发展各维度的战略为核心的新型创业实践。近年来，理论研究已指出，企业与其利益相关方（stakeholder）之间的价值共创，是企业维持可持续运营的必要前提。在此背景下，本文旨在探究符合可持续创业标准的企业与其供应商类利益相关方之间的互动关系，如何影响有助于可持续发展的价值创造活动。为此，本文采用基于多案例研究的质性研究方法，对4家企业及其各自对应的2家供应商开展了调研。研究结果显示，受访企业与其供应商类利益相关方之间的互动关系确实会对可持续发展导向的价值创造产生影响，该过程会兼顾环境、社会与经济三大维度的共同利益。