In 2020, Taiwan had 1,548,835 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), accounting for 98.93% of all enterprises in Taiwan. SMEs can benefit greatly from emphasizing sustainability, energy security, environmental protection, and economic benefits. This study aimed to identify key barriers and drivers of SMEs’ sustainable development, thereby enhancing their understanding of sustainable development and boosting sustainability. Questionnaire survey was administered to experts, who were required to provide data based on their own experiences. The expert responses were organized and analyzed using the Fuzzy Delphi Method (FDM). This study analyzed the extent to which barriers and drivers affected the adoption of sustainable manufacturing in SMEs, thereby revealing practical means of promoting sustainable manufacturing in SMEs.

ESG is essential to companies and only few Taiwanese firms have ESG rating record evaluated by independent third party. This study examines whether these going ahead firms associate with lower default risk. We obtain 66 Taiwanese samples that voluntarily evaluated by Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) in the period of 2017 to 2021 and find they have lower industry adjusted default risk. Among them, the higher ESG rating firms have lower default risk than others with lower rating record, consisting with the finding of Li et al. (2022). Interestingly, such superiority remains no matter their ESG rating is improved or worsened in next year. It is possible that firms who voluntarily take ESG evaluation conveying they are more information transparency and have higher intention on regulatory compliance than competitors. This study suggests policymakers to consider a mandatory ESG evaluation and disclosure results freely to public for the purpose of shareholder protection.

Previous studies have suggested that women have fewer entrepreneurial intentions than men, so the number of female entrepreneurs is way less than male entrepreneurs. However, it is a different phenomenon in Indonesia, where the number of female and male entrepreneurs is comparatively equal. Therefore, this study aims to find out which factors cause it (both at the factor and indicator levels along with its attributes) using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). The result indicates that both personal attitude and perceived behavioral control (factor level) do have a significant influence on entrepreneurial intentions, along with its indicator level (behavioral beliefs and control beliefs) significantly influencing its factor level, respectively. We also found that both women and men show similar levels of entrepreneurial intentions; their personal attitudes and behavioral beliefs also do not differ. Lastly, we discuss our findings with some reliable sources to reach a final conclusion.