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Entrepreneurship is argued to be a critical driver of economic growth for both individual communities and the nation. Regional scientists, economists, and policy makers underscore the importance of a diverse economy that supports recruitment of new firms, existing firms, and entrepreneurship efforts. However, there remains evidence that many states and localities prefer traditional industrial recruitment efforts and that local and state entrepreneurial efforts may be less coordinated. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This research explores the commitment and priorities of local and regional developers to entrepreneurial policy and other economic development policy efforts. This study uses a statewide survey to local economic developers and logistic regression to determine the likelihood of local entrepreneurial program efforts across South Carolina.

The model results reveal that the probability of local or regional entrepreneurial development programming is complex and dependent on the type of organization involved in economic development along with other community and state characteristics. However, results further confirm that barriers to entrepreneurship, like access to seed capital, and the influence of perceived alternative policies affect local and regional support of entrepreneurship.

The policy priorities of local economic developers appear to play a significant role in the probability of having local entrepreneurship policy and programs. This confirms that the signals local policymakers receive from the state may impact the programming choices and policy emphasis at the local and regional level. In conclusion, if states want entrepreneurial efforts to be a critical driver of economic growth and development, there must be a coordinated and focused state driver supporting these efforts.

This paper aims to contribute to the emerging entrepreneurship research that deals with resilience by examining how embeddedness in place and in trans-local grassroots networks influences proactive entrepreneurship for local resilience.

Three theoretical propositions are developed on the basis of the existing literature. These propositions are assisted with brief empirical illustrations of grassroots innovations from the context of agri-food systems.

Embeddedness in place and in trans-local grassroots networks enables proactive entrepreneurship for local resilience. Social-cultural embeddedness in place facilitates access to local resources and legitimacy, and creation of social value in the community. Ecological embeddedness in place facilitates spotting and leveraging of environmental feedbacks and creation of ecological value. Embeddedness in trans-local grassroots networks provides entrepreneurs with unique resources, including globally transferable knowledge about sustainability challenges and practical solutions to these challenges. As result, entrepreneurship for resilience is explained as an embedding process. Embedding means attuning of practices to local places, as well as making global resources, including knowledge obtained in grassroots networks, work in local settings.

Researchers should continue developing the emerging domain of entrepreneurship for resilience.

The objective of resilience and due respect to local environment may entail a need to consider appropriate resourcing practices and organisational models.

The critical roles of place-based practices for resilience deserve more recognition in today’s globalised world.

The specific importance of the ecological dimension of embeddedness in place is emphasised. Moreover, by combining entrepreneurship and grassroots innovation literatures, which have talked past each other to date, this paper shows how local and global resources are leveraged throughout the embedding process. Thereby, it opens unexplored research avenues within the emerging domain of entrepreneurship for resilience.

Public entrepreneurs are an under-researched group in local government. The purpose of this paper is to explore the contextual complexities of public entrepreneurs who pursue more creative ways of “doing more with less” to cope with dynamic financial and societal anxieties of Greek local government fiscal austerity policy reforms. Precisely, this study aims to the understanding of how specific contextual influences impact, first, on the nature of public entrepreneurship and, second, on manifested outcomes. A systematic approach marks the authors attempt to assess the broader impact pointing out the implications for research, policy and practice.

A case study of Greek local government draws on 26 in-depth semi-structured interviews with public entrepreneurs across top, middle and front-line levels of management, field notes, documentary and archival evidence.

The findings demonstrate unique Greek contextual complexities such as contradictory tensions between triggered decentralisation of control and responsibilities of the local government and attempts of external reinvention rather than internal renewal. These complexities influence public entrepreneurs’ systemic entrepreneurship behaviours in Greek local government since the implementation of fiscal austerity policy reforms in 2010. Their representation is manifest in policy, administrative and technological outcomes with public value consequences.

This research contributes to a deeper understanding of public entrepreneurship in context. Greek local government public entrepreneurs bring original insights on the contextual influences of their systemic enactment and manifested outcomes, with implications for research, policy and practice.

This paper aims to focus on three main strands of research relating to entrepreneurship in China: the role of local governments in the development of entrepreneurial activities in twon and village‐based enterprises (TVEs); institutional environments and strategic responses of private firms; and culture and its impact upon entrepreneurship. It aims to suggest a tentative research agenda and offer directions for further research.

The paper employs a critical review approach to research on entrepreneurship and small business development in China.

It is suggested that the combination of local entrepreneurial state theory with an analysis of the institutional environment at the macro level offers plausible explanations on the causes, context and extent of Chinese entrepreneurship development during the past two decades. The paper argues that existing theories need to be revised on a continuous basis, as ongoing reforms and developments redefine relationships between stakeholders and the wider economic environment in China.

The paper reviews progress to date and offers suggestions for further research. It posits that topics of future interest could include the changing relationship between stakeholders in both rural and urban areas, the impact of increasingly institutionalised environments on entrepreneurship and small business development, and longitudinal analyses of emerging models of entrepreneurial behaviour and growth.

The purpose of the current study is to investigate the public and private financing obstacles to medium- and small-scale entrepreneurs in rural areas in Iran.

Descriptive analytic research method is used for collecting field data among 5,770 owners of entrepreneurial businesses located in rural areas of Mashhad in 2015.

The results showed that there are numerous public and private obstacles in rural entrepreneurship financing in Iran, which are the main factors for short-term loan repayment in public sector, and in the private sector, they result in entrepreneurs’ lack of access to the source of financing. Moreover, there are a variety of financing methods for entrepreneurship in rural areas, among which personal resources and borrowings are the most important ones. Thus, lack of serious and persistent governmental support from local entrepreneurs causes many entrepreneurial failures at the early stages of entrepreneurial activity in villages of Iran.

So far, few studies have been conducted on the subject of the study; hence, the results of the current study may be helpful to the developing nations.

The aim is to advance the conceptualisation of island entrepreneurship by investigating how the island context, for example, industry characteristics, social context and formal and informal institutions, influences the development of artisan food businesses in that context.

An applied, qualitative and participatory research approach was implemented. Data were collected during a business development process focusing on food artisans in the Åland Islands. In total, 19 business owners participated in the process. Key informants and public officers were interviewed, and the literature was reviewed. Interviews were analysed using phenomenography to identify representative categories, and the literature was analysed using content analysis.

Island characteristics and context, local institutions, the quality of social capital and gendered institutions influence business activities positively and negatively. Island entrepreneurship entails mobilising agencies to find innovative solutions that enable businesses to overcome obstacles. Most previous research treats business activities as entrepreneurship; however, as self-employment is essential in the island context, it should be highlighted in future studies.

This study illustrates how the island context influences the business development of small firms. Results indicate that local policies (1) benefitting female entrepreneurs, (2) supporting local businesses and (3) promoting locally produced artisan food could generate benefits for the entire artisan food businesses.

Local policies that (1) benefit female entrepreneurs, (2) support local businesses and (3) promote locally produced artisan food have the potential to generate benefits for the entire trade. Policies can benefit from an understanding of the role played by different ecosystem actors. Promoting self-employment can generate benefits for the local entrepreneurial ecosystem by providing agglomeration and helping to solve some challenges caused by the characteristics of islands.

Empirically, this research enhances the knowledge of post-productive responses in the island context. Theoretically, the study advances the conceptualisation of research on the island entrepreneurship context and the local food debate.

Immigrant integration through entrepreneurship is hindered by the prevalent informality of their ventures. This study aims to examine the factors influencing the formalisation of immigrant entrepreneurship, with special focus on those who are under the impact of the host country.

The study is based on a series of focus groups conducted among a total of 59 Ukrainian immigrants in Poland. Based on coding into first-order categories, second-order themes and aggregate dimensions, the authors created a model of immigrant entrepreneurship formalisation.

The results of the research included in the model show the groups of factors influencing the formalisation of immigrant entrepreneurship. Immigrants bring both their personal attitudes and embeddedness in their country of origin during immigration. Then, factors of the host country’s institutions, interactions between local authorities and local communities and the need for a new place of belonging interact in the formalisation process. Formal entrepreneurs, as a new identity for immigrants, are the result of the formalisation process.

The results not only focus on social capital or the institutional failures of formal and informal institutions in transforming immigrants into formal entrepreneurs, but we also recognise the individual aspect of the new identity as formal entrepreneurs and a new place of belonging. In addition, the authors distinguish the importance and interactions between local communities and local authorities in this process. The paper contributes to the theory of entrepreneurship, migrant study and institutional theory.

This paper aims to underscore the role of culture in situating and embedding opportunistic action differently in high- and low-entrepreneurship communities in the USA. It challenges the idea that opportunity is either exclusively discovered or created – two themes commonly found in the literature.

The approach utilizes a multiple case study across one high- and one low-entrepreneurship community in rural areas in each of three states – Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Maine. Community profiling, key informant interviews and survey analysis with entrepreneurs and local institutional actors are used to develop a greater understanding of how these individuals conceptualize and utilize opportunity in ways that lead to entrepreneurship development.

Quantitative and qualitative findings are presented supporting the idea that in these rural areas, discovery and creation fail to capture the nuances of how entrepreneurs think about opportunistic action.

This research offers insights for both researchers and practitioners about more effective ways to think about entrepreneurial opportunity and provides a glimpse as to how different community actors may hold different, but equally-valid, views on how opportunity arises – an idea with significant policy and practice implications.

The research contributes empirical support challenging the current discussion on entrepreneurial opportunity and advances the conversation as it pertains to rural entrepreneurship development using original research from the field.

This paper examines the relationship between government economic development programming and entrepreneurial activity, by examining evidence in Southern California cities. While numerous studies explore this relationship between government institutions and entrepreneurship at the level of countries and states, significant questions remain at the level of city government, and the influence of local government economic development programs on city-level entrepreneurial activity.

This paper uses regression analysis of data from all 215 Southern California cities to decompose the complex relationships between economic development programming and different types of entrepreneurial activity.

Results suggest startups are attracted to cities with higher crime rates, more diversity, and older populations, yet not those with higher levels of economic development programming. There is evidence that some types of economic development programming may influence entrepreneurship, especially for the level of minority-owned businesses.

The paper makes three important contributions to the literature. First, it is among the first to use local (city-level) entrepreneurship as an outcome variable to measure the effect of government economic development programming. Many scholars have instead chosen to look at outcomes relating to general economic growth (e.g. new jobs) rather than outcomes specific to local entrepreneurship. Second, it explores city-wide entrepreneurial activity with respect to numerous measures, such as start-ups, minority and female ownership, and self-employment. Third, it examines the potential influence of economic development programming, both on aggregate and decomposed into economic development program clusters.

This paper explores entrepreneurs' expectation from the new provincial government to protect sociocultural values for promoting touristic city – Pokhara, Nepal.

The purposive sampling technique was applied to source the information from the respondents resided at Pokhara. Structured questionnaire techniques and cross-sectional descriptive method were used to collect data from 393 tourism entrepreneurs to explore their understanding and existing situations.

About 85.5% of the respondents argue that the new government system has affected their business and 58.27% feel procedural complexities due to new political administrative system. Natural beauty, growing pollution, unmanaged urbanizations, good flow of the tourists and sustainability of the touristic city resulted as main aspects of Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threats. The entrepreneurs expect that newly formed provincial government should provide business security, formulate appropriate tax policy and provision for business insurance scheme for smooth operation, growth and sustainability of their tourism entrepreneurship.

The research was taken in Pokhara, only the entrepreneurs mostly resided at Lakeside were taken and wider research across the whole city would give a more balanced perspective.

Recommendations are made with the aim of uplifting entrepreneurship milieu in the touristic city Pokhara in order to promote tourism business of Pokhara.

This research can help local authority to take local residents' and entrepreneurs' experience into consideration for creating better plan and policies for the well-being of Pokhara.

This is the first paper to provide data from the perspective of entrepreneurs' expectation from newly formed Gandaki provincial government in Pokhara, Nepal.