Environmental support programmes for small businesses: A systematic literature review

The purpose of this study is to explore the determinants of the performance of environmental support programmes for small businesses. With growing interests in promoting environmental sustainability among small businesses, developing a better understanding of environmental support programmes has become critical. Previous studies have investigated specific cases of environmental support programmes for small businesses. However, their findings are yet to be galvanised in a manner that improves our understanding of environmental support programmes for small businesses. This study addresses the gap in the literature by systematically reviewing 25 key journal articles and synthesizing their main findings. The findings from the deductive thematic analysis revealed that support provider/sponsor, client context, programme scope, capacity development, complementary support, service delivery network, and regulation influence the performance of environmental support programmes for small businesses. These findings highlight the ongoing efforts in developing and developed countries to promote environmental practices in small businesses. We, therefore, encourage sustainability and small business researchers to go beyond the design and implementation and focus more attention on how to improve the performance of environmental support programmes for small businesses.