Sustainability Management for Startups and Micro-Enterprises: Development of a Sustainability-Quick-Check and Reporting Scheme

Abstract

For enterprises of all sizes, sustainability is becoming increasingly important. Accordingly, there has been a noticeable increase in academic literature in the field of sustainability management and related tools and approaches. While the academic and practical contributions are growing in this field, it appears that literature has overlooked certain type of enterprise, namely the microenterprises, including normal startup companies. Nonetheless, mounting evidence places emphasis for the inclusion of startups and micro-enterprises in the sustainability debate. Therefore, the aim of this paper is not only to close the theoretical gap on appropriate sustainability measures for startups and micro-enterprises, but also to propose a conceptual framework for an IT-supported analysis and reporting tool for sustainability in micro-enterprises and startups. Based on previous research on sustainability management tools in SMEs as well as sustainability software applications, the paper proposes the contents and layout of a web-based tool for startups.