Measurement of sustainable entrepreneurship – benefits in a BREEZE: A review

When it comes to moving towards sustainable entrepreneurship, a knowledge-based economy is starting to affect companies and how they are managed. It is relevant for researchers and entrepreneurs to evaluate different sustainability aspects and look for ways how to achieve entrepreneurship sustainability. In the past couple of decades, many indicators have been developed which measure the performance of sustainable entrepreneurship. Not all cover a sufficient basis to provide a thorough evaluation, though. The goal of the study was to evaluate the expertise in sustainable entrepreneurship among large companies with metrics identified in the latest scientific literature review. In the process of the literature review, authors identified key metrics to measure the performance of sustainable entrepreneurship and split them into six groups. They mostly focus on social, environmental, and economic performance measurement. Relatively few research results mention the importance of corporate management indicators. Thus, the key metrics are distinctive by including corporate management as a separate aspect in the performance measurement. The conceptual framework is represented by the acronym BREEZE, including 6 groups of key metrics: brand awareness and consumer behaviour, responsibility for society and employees, environmentally friendly materials, ease of use and reuse (disposal), zero waste, economic performance (approbated on focus group discussion and expert interviews). The results revealed that the expertise levels in sustainable entrepreneurship among the large companies are fair. Complementary data analyses were carried out; as a result, authors developed a self-evaluation matrix in sustainable entrepreneurship.