Measuring Sustainable Entrepreneurial Practice: A Suggested Model

摘要

As a result of continuous environment degradation, business firms nowadays are urged to practice sustainability management. Thus, sustainable entrepreneurship has emerged as a new way of rectifying environmental problems through entrepreneurial activities. However, due to the lack ofuniversally accepted definition of sustainability, measuring sustainable entrepreneurial practice remains as a challenging task. As methods of evaluating sustainable practice vary across different sectors of businesses and industries, there is truly a need to respond to the urgent call ofdeveloping a model that is suitable for measuring sustainable entrepreneurial practice. Based on the concepts and measuring models developed by previous researchers, this paper suggests a new model for measuring sustainable entrepreneurial practice. The model consists of five dimensions whichare known as (i) economics; (ii) social; (iii) ecological; (iv) culture and; (v) ethical. The dimensions are then further be reflected by nine indicators, namely (i) ethics; (ii) governance; (iii) transparency; (iv) business relationships; (v) financial return; (vi) community involvement;(vii) value of products and services; (viii) employment practices and; (ix) protection of the environment. In order to determine the extent of sustainable entrepreneurial practices for each dimension, the indicators identified above can be measured by using specific tangible measures suchas frequency numbers, costs, income and expenses. Lastly, the sustainable entrepreneurial practices can be recognized into three levels which are (i) formalization; (ii) integration and; (iii) voluntarism. This paper has contributed to both practical and theoretical contexts. Practically,it suggests a model that can be adopted by firms in measuring their sustainable entrepreneurial practice. By doing so, it encourages more firms to embark on sustainable entrepreneurship. Theoretically, it provides some basic insights on evaluating sustainable entrepreneurial practices andmost importantly, it contributes a new model for measuring sustainable entrepreneurial practices. Some recommendations for future studies have also been put forth at the end of this paper.