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"Industrialisation has brought great benefits to humankind but now after 200 years of fossil fuel use, land clearance and pollution the planet's boundaries are being stretched to their limits. Going beyond these confines would have severe consequences for humankind. To prevent this happening, government, corporate and community initiatives must focus on reducing the environmental impacts of the 400 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) given that they produce approximately 70% of the world's pollution, 60% of carbon emissions and have significant impacts on the land. To date, research shows that SMEs have been environmental laggards and more needs to be understood to improve sustainability in the SME sector. Broadening the researcher's methodological focus beyond traditional singular approaches improves knowledge generation and better informs policy and practice. This book paves the way by showing the reader that a mixed-method research design is able to provide a deep, diverse and holistic understanding of sustainability and SMEs. Importantly, the book also provides an in-depth mapping of mixed method sustainability and SME research at a regional level. As this book is about environmental sustainability framed in a business context it will be of interest to researchers, academics, students and those in industry who are enquiring about the environmental sustainability of SMEs"--

This expansive and practical Handbook introduces the methods currently used to increase the understanding of the usefulness and versatility of a systematic approach to qualitative research in entrepreneurship. It fills a crucial gap in the literature on entrepreneurship theory, and, just as importantly, illustrates how these principles and techniques can be appropriately and fruitfully employed

AbstractWhile industry leaders proactively address environmental issues as an integrated part of corporate strategy, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) often perceive it as a means of cost reduction. The aim of this paper is to track the development of motivators, environmental initiatives, and their perceived effects on competitive advantage among SMEs. For that purpose, we conducted a longitudinal analysis of 4 repeated surveys over a period of 14 years among Danish manufacturing SMEs. Results show that Danish SMEs have increasingly deployed environmental initiatives that are associated with both lower costs and a differentiation dimensions of competitive advantage. The study also shows that over managerial attitudes, strategic intent has been the main driver when adopting such initiatives. Furthermore, we found that despite some differences between small and medium‐sized firms in terms of the levels of environmental engagement, the competitive benefits are generally robust regarding firm size. Before concluding, implications for future research and corporate managers are pointed out. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment