Evaluating the Enablers of Green Entrepreneurship in Circular Economy: Organizational Enablers in Focus

Abstract

In recent decades, green entrepreneurship has been at the center of attention as an effective strategy to maintain sustainability and create a competitive advantage for organizations in a circular economy. However, the successful implementation of this strategy requires organizations to have internal enablers. This study endeavored to identify and evaluate organizational enablers for green entrepreneurship in manufacturing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Iran. Identifying organizational enablers can help SMEs in facilitating the conditions for adopting green entrepreneurship. To these ends, organizational enablers were extracted by reviewing the literature and then, using the viewpoints of 17 active experts in different industries in SMEs, they were classified. In the next step, the “Best Worst Method” was employed to prioritize the identified enablers (5 factors) and sub-enablers (20 factors). The contextual hierarchical relationships between these factors were identified through the “Interpretive Structural Modeling” method. Using the Matrix of Cross-Impact Multiplications Applied to Classification (MICMAC) analysis, the driving and dependence powers of organizational enablers were computed and the enablers were clustered. Based on the results, among the five enablers, three including total quality management, circular supply chain management, and corporate social responsibility were the most important from the point of view of the experts. Moreover, among the sub-enablers, strategic planning, green purchasing, and corporate social responsibility motivation were more important than other sub-enablers. The results of ISM analysis provided a seven-level hierarchical model and the relationships between them. The results of the MICMAC analysis led to the clustering of 20 organizational enablers in three main clusters: driving (nine factors), linkage (four factors), and dependent (seven factors). The results of this study provide practical suggestions for active senior managers to implement green entrepreneurship in SMEs.