Sustainability performance analysis of small and medium sized enterprises: Criteria, methods and framework

• Published in: Socio-economic planning sciences 2021-06, Vol.75, p.100993, Article 100993
• Main Authors: Malesios, Chrisovalantis, De, Debashree, Moursellas, Andreas, Dey, Prasanta Kumar, Evangelinos, Konstantinos
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Content analysis; Drivers; Economic performance; Employment; GDP; Gross Domestic Product; Innovations; Literature review; Literature reviews; Practices; Small & medium sized enterprises-SME; Small and medium enterprises; Social environment; Statistical modeling; Sustainability
• ISSN: 0038-0121; 1873-6041
• DOI: 10.1016/j.seps.2020.100993

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in any economy as they contribute to GDP and employment. However, sustainability (right combination of economic, environmental and social) of SMEs is a major concern as they prioritize economic performance over environmental and social to remain competitive. Majority of prior researches on SMEs' sustainability either look at the impact of a few limited enablers (e.g. lean, green, innovation etc.) on sustainability performance or the effect of pressures and barriers on the sustainability performance. There is a clear gap of a holistic and robust framework for sustainability performance analysis in order to measure and improve sustainability performance. This research bridges this knowledge gap by addressing two research questions – what practice and performance criteria are being considered for sustainability performance analysis in a broad environmental, economic and social context, how are they related, and what methods are being used to derive the relationship between sustainability practices and performance. These research questions are addressed through a systematic literature review of 58 papers, published between 2005 and 2018 in leading journals. First, an objective content analysis is undertaken in order to identify sustainability practices and performance criteria along with their frequency of usage in prior research. Second, the correlation among the variables is studied. Third, the methods for analyzing the relationships of the criteria are identified. Finally, a framework for analysing correlation of SMEs’ sustainability practices and performance in order to measure and improve performance using statistical modeling approach is proposed. •We provide a literature review on the sustainability modeling approaches in SMEs.•We examine practice/performance variables being considered for sustainability performance analysis and how are they related.•Additionally, we review the methods being used to derive the relationship between sustainability practices and performance.•Most papers study the correlation between environmental and social practices with economic and environmental performance.•A robust framework for analysing SMEs' sustainability practices/ performance using statistical modeling approach is proposed.