The Direction of SMEs’ Sustainability for Indonesia Context: A Literature Review
Keywords:
SME sustainability, emerging markets, institutional theory, owner-manager valuesAbstract
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) form the backbone of Indonesia’s economy. However, their contribution to environmental sustainability remains constrained by fragmented research that examines financial, institutional, technological, and managerial factors in isolation. This review synthesizes literature across four interrelated themes, such as financial access, institutional and regulatory pressure, digital transformation, and owner-manager values, to build an integrated understanding of how Indonesian SMEs can advance sustainability. We adopted a systematic narrative review approach. Essentially, the study draws on peer-reviewed sources from Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar, screened and synthesized through thematic coding. Findings show that these four dimensions do not operate independently. They suggest that financial capacity shapes digital adoption, institutional pressure gains force only where enforcement is consistent, and owner-manager conviction determines whether available resources are converted into sustained practice. Theoretically, the review extends resource-based, institutional, and stakeholder frameworks by treating SME sustainability as an interacting system. Practically, it points toward coordinated action, starting from accessible, low-cost steps and building outward, as the most realistic path for Indonesian SMEs, policymakers, and support institutions. So, the review concludes that sustainability is best understood as an ongoing process of alignment among resources, rules, technology, and people.
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