Citation: Akku¸ s, Y.; Çalıyurt, K. The Role of Sustainable Entrepreneurship in UN Sustainable Development Goals: The Case of TED Talks. Sustainability 2022, 14, 8035. https:// doi.org/10.3390/su14138035 Academic Editors: Antonis A. Zorpas and Stephan Weiler Received: 15 February 2022 Accepted: 28 June 2022 Published: 30 June 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). sustainability Article The Role of Sustainable Entrepreneurship in UN Sustainable Development Goals: The Case of TED Talks Yasin Akku¸ s 1 and Kıymet Çalıyurt 2, * 1 Uzunköprü Vocational School, Trakya University, Edirne 22200, Turkey; yasinakkus@trakya.edu.tr 2 Department of Business Administration, Trakya University, Edirne 22200, Turkey * Correspondence: kiymetcaliyurt@trakya.edu.tr Abstract: It can be seen that entrepreneurship has undergone many changes since the time it was defined and many types have been introduced over time as well. A relatively new type is sustainable entrepreneurship, which seeks to function in a way that can be passed down through the generations without endangering nature’s responsiveness. Sustainable entrepreneurs sometimes perform their activities in a way that emphasizes the social aspect, and sometimes in a way that highlights the economic aspect. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) announced by the United Nations in 2015 are expected to correspond to the activities of sustainable entrepreneurs. In order to identify this correspondence, we performed qualitative content analysis of presentations on entrepreneurship in TED Talks. As a result of the analysis, the social and economic aspects of sustainable entrepreneurs were evaluated separately with the SDGs, and strong correlations were determined in some instances. These correlations are expected to provide insight in terms of identifying the topics that sustainable entrepreneurs focus on. Keywords: sustainable entrepreneurship; sustainable development goals; development; innovation; TED Talks 1. Introduction Entrepreneurs are among the most important actors contributing to economic growth. It can also be seen that they have an important role in increasing employment. Yet, today, the roles of entrepreneurs have diversified, and they have many additional purposes besides making a profit [1–3]. Entrepreneurs, especially in their innovative aspects, have an important effect on the world apart from economy and employment. These effects sometimes stay at the local level, and sometimes they rise to the global level [4]. Especially after the 1970s, entrepreneurs made great contributions to the development of technology with their innovations [5]. In turn, technology is a key factor in many areas, mainly in economic growth and development [6]. It is rather difficult to define entrepreneurship as a uniform and homogeneous concept. Today, it is possible to divide entrepreneurship into many subtypes. It can be observed that the structure established by entrepreneurs can fit into more than one subtype of entrepreneurship [7]. While there are entrepreneurs whose aim is to generate profit, there are also entrepreneurs who do not aim to gain a profit. The purpose of some entrepreneurs is both generating profit and providing social benefits [8]. Since Muhammed Yunus proved to the world when he founded Grameen Bank that there can be a social entrepreneurship model that supports entrepreneurship, many entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship structures have been created at different rates and in different combinations [9]. Whether they seek profit or social benefit or both, all entrepreneurs are important actors in growth and development at the global level, and this is seen as a fact that is difficult to oppose. Entrepreneurship playing an active role in the realization of growth and development in a sustainable way is also seen as quite natural [10]. The United Nations (UN) has set goals Sustainability 2022, 14, 8035. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14138035 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability