ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Fellnhofer, K./Kraus, S./Bouncken, R.B. (2014): The Current State of Research on Sustainable Entrepreneurship, International Journal of Business Research, 14(3), 163-172. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18374/IJBR-14-3.11 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH, Volume x, Number y, 2014 1 The Current State of Research on Sustainable Entrepreneurship Katharina Fellnhofer, New Design University, AUSTRIA Sascha Kraus, University of Liechtenstein, LIECHTENSTEIN Ricarda B. Bouncken, University of Bayreuth, GERMANY ABSTRACT This article outlines the emerging research concerned with sustainable entrepreneurship. To advance this research field and to highlight potential future directions for research, this article reviews and explores the present state of research on the field by means of a structured literature review. It facilitates comparisons of past developments, and uncovers areas where research is still needed. By synthesizing the present body of literature and focusing on sustainable environmental, societal and economic developments in the field of entrepreneurship, we conclude the paper by proposing three potential directions for future research. Key words: sustainable entrepreneurship; entrepreneurship; sustainability; sustainable development 1. INTRODUCTION The aim of this article is to generate an overview of the structure and development of the field of sustainable entrepreneurship by the means of a structured review of extant literature. Global sustainability disputes lead to an increasing awareness of sustainable entrepreneurship as a phenomenon and a research area (Cohen and Winn, 2007). Entrepreneurs are gradually more confronted with social and environmental challenges, while stakeholders expect them to create economic, environmental and social value (Urban and Nikolov, 2013). Worldwide, reaping accompanying opportunities requires companies to come up with innovative ideas (Spitzeck et al., 2013). In addition, there appears to be an increasing political debate for sustainable entrepreneurial initiatives (Dyllick and Hockerts, 2002; Pei et al., 2010; Weiss and Welsh, 2013). This study offers two relevant contributions. First, our analysis comprises a synthesis of the main three clusters within this research field, thereby critically evaluating literature related to the above mentioned environmental, societal and economic developments, as well as highlighting open research gaps in these most promising areas for future research. Second, it is one of the first studies that provides a broad and multifaceted view of sustainable entrepreneurship on the basis of a systematic review. While there is a growing academic interest in this “triple-bottom line”, there is also a clear need for greater ties between the more environmentally-oriented sustainable development and entrepreneurship literature, represented by this paper. No systematic review exists with a focus on sustainable development and entrepreneurship practices. Hereby, a better understanding of entrepreneurial dynamics within these segments will provide a more accurate picture of sustainable development, including a robust literature overview on the role of sustainable entrepreneurship with respect to future research questions. 2. METHODOLOGY Aiming at a consolidation of the literature across domains, our methodology is a systematic, evidence- informed literature review (Tranfield et al., 2003). A first classification scheme of applied research methods in sustainable entrepreneurship literature as part of a comprehensive literature review is presented in order to uncover, classify, and interpret the current research (Behzadian et al., 2010). Our structured review of extant literature on the field is used to help analyze the relationships between research clusters and methodology of publications in this adolescent research field. This is an influence that is based on the fact that the different clusters provide essential findings based on different research design, which are in turn influential for the scientific work in the whole academic field. By dividing the research field into three different sub-sections, we can determine to what extent literature has dealt with an application focus and finding in a further step. We herewith follow other quantitative-oriented literature reviews in the field such as e.g. ones on strategic orientations (Hakala, 2011), entrepreneurial marketing (Kraus et al., 2012), social entrepreneurship (Kraus et al., 2013) or family business research (Xi et al., 2013).