Investigating the Barriers and Deterrents to Establish Green Entrepreneurship in Greenhouse Production Units of Golestan Province

Today, changing human behavior by adopting green entrepreneurship is necessary for a sustainable future. Green entrepreneurship is a new sustainability term and a strategy to green a business by minimizing harmful factors on the environment and committing to economic and social sustainability. Despite the advantages and benefits of green entrepreneurship in agricultural sectors; there are many barriers to development of this type of entrepreneurship. The main goal of this research is to identify the barriers and limitations of green entrepreneurship in the greenhouse units of Golestan province with PESTEL analysis. The statistical population studied included active vegetable and summer greenhouse units in Golestan province, and the samples were studied in full with 70 greenhouse systems. This research is applied and descriptive and correlational (variance matrix analysis) in terms of purpose and data collection method, respectively.  Among various researches, in this study, the barriers and challenges of green entrepreneurship were investigated for the first time based on PESTEL analysis. The face validity of the research tool was confirmed based on the collective opinion of experts and specialists of agricultural Jihad of Golestan province and faculty members of Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University. Discriminant validity was assessed using AVE and reliability was evaluated through Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability indices (higher than 0.6). For data analysis, confirmatory factor analysis based on partial least squares method with Smart PLS3 software was used. The results revealed that environmental, social, legal, technical, political, and economic factors are the most important challenges and barriers of green entrepreneurship. Guaranteed and contractual purchase of green products by the government and amendment of regulations and laws for exporting and branding green products are suggested for the development of green entrepreneurship.