A sustainability maturity model for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) based on a data analytics evaluation approach
Loading...
Date
2021-05-28
Authors
Vásquez, Jenifer
Aguirre, Santiago
Puertas, Edwin
Bruno, Giulia
Priarone, Paolo C.
Settineri, Luca
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
A maturity model for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) is introduced to assess the level of
implementation of sustainability strategies and practices in this type of business. According to the literature, only
a few sustainability-maturity assessment models intended for MSMEs have integrated the following three factors:
environmental knowledge management, environmental strategies and good practices, and environmental management systems. The sustainability maturity model proposed here for MSMEs is capable of supporting the efforts
of companies in their attempts to achieve both environmental sustainability and an improvement in their production systems. The model encompasses a four-level qualitative scale and uses supervised classification algorithms to categorize companies through data analysis techniques. After applying the model to a group of MSMEs from different productive sectors in Colombia, the results have shown that 6% of the companies were at an
insufficient level, 31% were at an initial level, 45% at a developed sustainability maturity level, and 18% at a
consolidated level. This result implies that the decision makers in the latter group have paid greater attention to
the strengthening of sustainability progress capabilities and, hence, to the definition of a maturation route.
Description
Keywords
Citation
Jenifer Vásquez, Santiago Aguirre, Edwin Puertas, Giulia Bruno, Paolo C. Priarone, Luca Settineri, A sustainability maturity model for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) based on a data analytics evaluation approach, Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 311, 2021, 127692, ISSN 0959-6526, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.127692.