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POLICY AND PRACTICE REVIEWS article
Front. Sustain. Cities
Sec. Cities in the Global South
Volume 7 - 2025 |
doi: 10.3389/frsc.2025.1476967
Strategies for the Dynamization of Sustainable Business Ecosystems -A View from Medellin's SMEs
Provisionally accepted- Pontifical Bolivarian University, Medellín, Colombia
A confluence of internal and external factors has contributed to a growing optimism regarding the viability of sustainability positions, evidenced by a proliferation of studies on this topic at the global level. We integrate this comprehension with the pivotal function that SMEs perform within the business network of the city of Medellín and examine the extent of their engagement with sustainability issues. This study examines the obstacles that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) encounter globally and contrasts them with the incentives that various actors, including government agencies and private entities, implement to address these types of obstacles. A search of SCOPUS using the equation and the definition of the keyword "sustainability," along with the terms "barriers," "incorporation," "entrepreneurship," "creation," and "SME," yielded 107 articles. The 50 most cited articles related to the research topic were selected; however, seven of them were found to be irrelevant to the research topic and were thus excluded. Consequently, 43 articles were subjected to analysis for the purposes of this study. The focus of this study is centered on Colombia, specifically in the city of Medellin, the capital of the Antioquia department. For this purpose, we have standardized both the barriers and incentives reviewed, resulting in 18 barriers and 13 incentives. The AHP model was employed to ascertain the level of importance of each barrier, group them into six categories, and evaluate and compare the incentives in terms of their efficacy in addressing these barriers. Based on these findings, strategies are proposed to enhance the company's market position and competitive advantage, thereby fostering a more robust business network in the city.
Keywords: sustainability, Business ecosystem, Business network, development, SMEs, AHP (Analytic hierarchy process), Medellin
Received: 06 Aug 2024; Accepted: 31 Jan 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cadavid, Gomez, Zartha Sossa and Orozco. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Santiago Cadavid, Pontifical Bolivarian University, Medellín, Colombia
Luis Miguel Gomez, Pontifical Bolivarian University, Medellín, Colombia
Jhon Wilder Zartha Sossa, Pontifical Bolivarian University, Medellín, Colombia
Gina Lía Orozco, Pontifical Bolivarian University, Medellín, Colombia
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