Plans to Practice- The Gap Between SME Sustainability Aspirations and Implementation
Bibliographic record
Abstract
This research investigates the gap between sustainability ambitions and practical implementation among Canadian Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). Through literature review, interviews, and data analysis, the study identifies three critical implementation thresholds for SME’s: stuck in ambiguity, buried in complexity, and struggling to start. The findings reveal that purpose serves as a foundational element rather than one of four equal pillars in the quadruple bottom line framework. SMEs demonstrate strong purpose-driven values aligned with sustainability principles, but face systemic barriers including emotional factors, resource constraints, and fragmented support systems. The paper reconceptualizes sustainability as an ongoing process of building organizational capacity while resilience represents the mobilization of that capacity during disruptions. This leads to a recommendation of ten practical interventions addressing barriers within and outside of SMEs control. This research provides actionable pathways for SMEs to strengthen their sustainability implementation and enhance overall resilience.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.035 | 0.076 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.008 | 0.007 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.012 | 0.006 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.006 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.003 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.009 | 0.002 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".