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The paper presents results from four surveys of rural businesses in mountainous and less‐favoured areas of Southern Europe. Institutional support to rural businesses is extensive and delivered through the traditional instruments of capital subsidies, training and assistance to financial and technical management. Strategic orientations vary among case study areas and businesses. Results show that institutions should design and implement de‐centralised, flexible policies of business support in the less favoured areas of the European Union.

The present work provides an integrated view of rural entrepreneurship and sets the agenda for future research in the area. Rurality defines a territorially specific entrepreneurial milieu with distinct physical, social and economic characteristics. Location, natural resources and the landscape, social capital, rural governance, business and social networks, as well as information and communication technologies, exert dynamic and complex influences on entrepreneurial activity in rural areas. Rurality is viewed as a dynamic entrepreneurial resource that shapes both opportunities and constraints. Rural entrepreneurship is depicted as a three‐stage sequential process highly influenced by specific territorial characteristics. The proposed research agenda addresses issues related to theoretical studies concerning entrepreneurial processes in rural areas and more applied issues concerning the formulation of integrated and competent policies supporting entrepreneurship in such areas.