Social Embeddedness Strategies of Sustainable Startups: Insights from an Emerging Economy

Social embeddedness describes the extent to which firms are integrated into a social network in different situations and is an important concept in the entrepreneurship literature. Much of the existing research on embeddedness focuses on how entrepreneurs integrate into their host countries or the business activities of transnational entrepreneurs who operate across both their host and home countries. While a limited number of studies have examined sustainable entrepreneurs, previous studies have not sufficiently examined the nature of entrepreneurs’ social embeddedness and its effect on their sustainable entrepreneurial activities. This study seeks to understand how sustainable entrepreneurs utilize their social embeddedness when navigating business challenges. This study followed a multiple-case study approach based on data collected from in-depth inquiries into eight founders of sustainable startups in Nigeria. The findings show that sustainable entrepreneurs use social embeddedness as a strategy to navigate challenges encountered at different stages of their business. The findings make a theoretical contribution by describing how sustainable entrepreneurs use social embeddedness as a strategy to navigate business challenges in a developing country context. The findings offer implications for policymakers of emerging economies and sustainable entrepreneurship support organizations.