How sustainability is driven in entrepreneurship? Evidence from apiculture practices

The entrepreneurial endeavor in apiculture is an arena where sustainability is a crucial element that contributes toward developing a long-term effective business model. The prior studies, however, have not focused on the factors influencing the sustainability of apicultural entrepreneurship. This study investigates the factors influencing the sustainability of apicultural entrepreneurship considering a sample of 750 beekeepers by employing the partial least squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM). PLS-SEM has been applied on three broad categories of factors, viz. business, personal and regulatory, based on the reliability and validity assessed through the reflective measurement model (RMM). The study used the institutional theory to get deeper insight into the business, personal and regulatory factors. The findings of the study revealed that fund availability, family support, product uniqueness, family history of entrepreneurship, previous experience, education, financial subsidy, infrastructure availability and government policies positively influence the sustainability in apicultural entrepreneurship. These factors together contribute to 71.36% of the variation in sustainability of apicultural entrepreneurship. Contrarily, the study found no significant influence of the business factor—access to credit—and regulatory factor—access to training facility—on the sustainability of apicultural entrepreneurship. The study also revealed that the regulatory factors have a high degree positive influence on the sustainability of apicultural entrepreneurship followed by the business and personal factors. The findings of the study suggest that leveraging these factors could lead to more sustainability in apicultural entrepreneurship. Moreover, the outcomes of the study could assist in the practical understanding of the aspects, which contribute to the sustainability of apicultural entrepreneurship.