Assessment of Barriers in Sustainable Business Management of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises : A Systematic Literature Review

Purpose - From the past few years, there has been substantial increase in the importance of sustainability practices integration in the SMEs. This study has identified the analysis of the barriers that are presented to the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) during the implementation of the sustainable business practices. Methodology/Design/Approach - To achieve this study objective, systematic literature review is carried out and secondary data is collected by using the articles related to the objective published between years 2018 to 2022. The study included a total of 24 publications belonging to peer reviewed journals and analyzed on basis of title and abstract. Findings - The findings of the study revealed 47 barriers to the sustainability implementation in the SMEs from which 9 are external barriers, 9 are internal barriers and 6 are combination of both barriers. The most frequently occurring barrier in the studies were lack of financial resources, unsupportive government, lack of awareness, business culture, lack of competence, restrictive mindset and communication gap. Practical implications - The findings of study reveals there are different barriers towards sustainability implementation in different SMEs. Such barriers could be overcome through best practice sharing as well as by policy interventions, organizational wide initiatives and benchmarking. Originality/value – This study is among the first studies that have offered the valuable insight upon the 47 different barriers to sustainability implementation in the SMEs noticed in the past 5 years. The study would offer the other researchers further opportunities for similar studies in individual sectors