Title: Systematic literature review and future research directions: drivers of environmental sustainability practices in small and medium-sized enterprises

Authors: Mohammad Imtiaz Hossain; Tze San Ong; Mosab I. Tabash; May Ling Siow; Ridzwana Mohd Said

Addresses: Faculty of Management (FOM), Multimedia University, Malaysia ' School of Business and Economics, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia ' College of Business, Al Ain University, P.O. Box 64141, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates ' Department of Design and Architecture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia ' School of Business and Economics, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

Abstract: Due to SMEs crucial and dynamic role in the country's economic growth, exploring the important drivers is crucial to motivate the proper implementation of environmental sustainability (ES) practices in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The study's objectives are to identify relevant drivers of ES practices in SMEs and provide future research directions. The systematic literature review (SLR) methodology proposed by Tranfield et al. (2003) has been adopted with some modifications in this study. The authors have undertaken extensive literature review (n = 22) published between 2009 to 2020 in reputable journals and developed a framework. After analysing the relevant articles critically, 87 drivers have been identified and categorised under two main clusters (internal and external) and eight dimensions. This study contributes to the extant literature by highlighting the importance and current practices of ES in SMEs and proposed a framework integrated with multi-dimensional drivers which provide directions to sustainability scholars.

Keywords: environmental sustainability practices; drivers; small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; systematic literature review; SLR.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSE.2022.123864

International Journal of Sustainable Economy, 2022 Vol.14 No.3, pp.269 - 293

Received: 25 Jun 2021
Accepted: 24 Aug 2021
Published online: 04 Jul 2022 *

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