Innovation and Sustainability Practices in Project Management Within SMEs Context – A Systematic Literature Review

This research aims to identify practices that might help to ensure innovation and sustainability throughout Project Management (PM) within Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). Project-based economic activity has been highly increasing in the last decades, turning PM into a vehicle for implementing innovation and sustainability. A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was conducted, considering articles in the Scopus and Web of Science databases to understand which innovation and sustainability practices have been adopted. In total, 166 innovation practices and 86 sustainability practices were identified. The contribution of this study is twofold. Firstly, it creates evidence that sustainability and innovation share a knowledge intersection, especially concerning knowledge sharing. Secondly, it shows that sustainable environmental practices are much more numerous than sustainable social and economic practices.