Systemic Barriers to Sustainable Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies: A Hybrid Review and the Development of an Integrated Barrier Framework

Abstract

Sustainable entrepreneurship has gained significant traction as a tool for addressing socio-economic and environmental issues in emerging economies. Nevertheless, current research has primarily examined institutional, financial, socio-cultural, and technological barriers in isolation, resulting in a limited understanding of how these obstacles interact and reinforce one another. This research paper aims to fill the gap by synthesising the existing literature on sustainable entrepreneurship in emerging economies and developing a systems-based model that explains the interactions among several barriers. A mixed bibliometric and systematic review of 72 papers published from 2000 to 2025 has been performed using the PRISMA approach. The research is based on the use of bibliometric tools, such as yearly output and keyword co-occurrence visualisation, along with thematic synthesis of the existing knowledge. These results suggest the presence of five key research dimensions and illustrate that the effects of institutional fragmentation, financial conservatism, socio-cultural scepticism, and technological constraints reinforce each other and create a state of low-innovation equilibrium, which prevents the emergence of sustainable entrepreneurship. The study advances sustainable entrepreneurship theory by developing the Integrated Sustainable Entrepreneurship Barrier Framework (ISEBF), which conceptualises institutional, financial, socio-cultural, and technological barriers as interconnected ecosystem mechanisms that collectively shape sustainable entrepreneurial outcomes in emerging economies. The findings guide policymakers, entrepreneurial support organisations, and researchers seeking to strengthen sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems in emerging economies.