Search results

Policy for women's entrepreneurship is designed to promote economic growth, not least in depleted rural areas, but very little is known about the contributions of rural women entrepreneurs, their needs or how the existing policy is received by them. Using a theoretical framework developed by Korsgaard et al. (2015), the authors analyse how rural women entrepreneurs contribute to rural development and discuss the implications for entrepreneurship policy. This paper aims to focus on the aforementioned objectives.

The authors interviewed 32 women entrepreneurs in rural Sweden representing the variety of businesses in which rural Swedish women are engaged. The authors analysed their contributions to rural development by analysing their motives, strategies and outcomes using Korsgaard et al.’s framework of “entrepreneurship in the rural” and “rural entrepreneurship” as a heuristic, interpretative device.

Irrespective of industry, the respondents were deeply embedded in family and local social structures. Their contributions were substantial, multidimensional and indispensable for rural viability, but the policy tended to bypass most women-owned businesses. Support in terms of business training, counselling and financing are important, but programmes especially for women tend to miss the mark, and so does rural development policy. More important for rural women entrepreneurs in Sweden is the provision of good public services, including for example, schools and social care, that make rural life possible.

Theoretically, the findings question the individualist and a-contextual focus of much entrepreneurship research, as well as the taken-for-granted work–family divide. How gender and how the public and the private are configured varies greatly between contexts and needs contextual assessment. Moreover, the results call for theorising place as an entrepreneurial actor.

Based on the findings, the authors advise future policymakers to gender mainstream entrepreneurship policy and to integrate entrepreneurship and rural development policy with family and welfare state policy.

The paper highlights how rural women respond to policy, and the results are contextualised, making it possible to compare them to other contexts. The authors widen the discussion on contributions beyond economic growth, and the authors show that policy for public and commercial services and infrastructure is indeed also policy for entrepreneurship.

This paper investigates whether and to what extent operating in inner areas affects the profitability of innovative Italian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) over 2012–2018.

Guided by the National Strategy for Inner Areas and the “Investment Compact,” this study distinguishes between inner and core innovative SMEs. It employs various econometric models to estimate a regression for the return on assets of SMEs, differentiating between firms operating in inner and non-inner areas of northwest, northeast, centre and south Italy.

Findings reveal that innovative SMEs in inner areas generally exhibit lower profitability compared to those in non-inner municipalities. However, huge heterogeneity in results is observed across the country. Specifically, innovative SMEs in the inner areas of the south register lower profitability than those operating in non-inner zones. Conversely, innovative SMEs located in the inner municipalities of northwest and northeast Italy show higher profitability than their peers in non-inner areas. The results imply that targeted policies for inner areas are crucial. However, due to the diversity of local impacts, a differentiated approach, depending on the geographic context, is necessary.

The study aims to explore the relationship between inner areas and the performance of innovative SMEs in Italy. More precisely, it examines the effect of operating in a municipality located within an inner area on the profitability of innovative SMEs. This issue has been overlooked in existing literature. Importantly, we aim to determine whether there is a heterogeneous impact based on geographical localisation, specifically in the Northwest, the Northeast, the Centre and the South of the country. Therefore, this paper contributes to the literature by investigating the factors influencing the performance of innovative SMEs and suggesting new policy recommendations for developing inner areas in Italy.

This perspective article provides a compact view on past and promising future research of family business in tourism/hospitality research, an industry that is dominated and driven by family firms.

This article draws on a review of key literature from family business and tourism/hospitality research, and synchronizes this literature for understanding the groundings and development of the field.

The article finds that there are peculiar research gaps and needs concerning gender roles, sub-industries/family networks, later generation conflicts as well as differences in life cycle stages between emerging and developing countries.

This article summarizes the state of the art of research for family business in tourism/hospitality and provides a novel agenda for theory advancement and research of practical relevance.

Progress in agriculture significantly relies on the adoption of innovative farm practices by farmers. Being proactive and risk-taking catalyses this innovativeness. Progressive farmers in general are proving to be effective in developing their farms along entrepreneurial lines. The paper aims to examine the relationship between the entrepreneurial traits of risk-taking, proactiveness, innovativeness and entrepreneurial intention (EI) of progressive farmers in Kashmir.

A quantitative research approach was used to evaluate how innovativeness, risk-taking and proactiveness affect EI. The data was collected from registered progressive farmers using a structured questionnaire via both online and offline means. 203 useable responses were received. The data was then analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

The results reveal that progressive farmers' EI is influenced by innovativeness, risk-taking and proactiveness. As hypothesized, a significant and positive relationship was found between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) traits of risk-taking, proactiveness and innovativeness and EI.

The study adds to the existing body of knowledge on agri-entrepreneurship by conceptualizing EO traits influencing EI of progressive farmers and offering insightful advice to policymakers on how to improve progressive farmers' entrepreneurial abilities and in turn convert their EI into agro venture establishment in Kashmir.

This study makes advancements in the field of farming-related EO by examining the EI of progressive farmers. This study covers a knowledge gap as there aren't many empirical studies on agricultural entrepreneurship that concentrate on the EO of progressive farmers and how it influences the EI in general in India and the Kashmir valley in particular.

The purpose of this study is shed light on the underlying forces behind entrepreneurship within a regional innovation system (RIS) in a remote rural region. The authors examine the following questions: Which are the main underlying forces behind the entrepreneurial process in a rural RIS characterized by traditionally low-tech, small-scale businesses? How can the development of a low-tech regional innovation system be conceptualized?

The design of the study is based on entrepreneurship theory. Data analysis followed practices used in phenomenography, a research approach used to analyse and identify commonalities and variations in populations' perceptions of a certain phenomenon. Data are composed using semi-structured interviews and a database composed of company information of all firms in the population.

A proactive mobilization of regional stakeholders and resources can be an important driving force behind the entrepreneurial process and generation of a rural RIS. Innovation can be generated within low-tech industries turning the rural context into an asset. An RIS in a remote rural context can be initiated and orchestrated by regional authorities, but knowledge brokering and orchestration can also be managed by networks of small-scale businesses brought together by mutual benefit and common interests.

Regional innovation systems theory is most often used to study high-tech industries. But by combining regional innovation systems with rural entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship context theory is a fruitful avenue to understand the role of rural entrepreneurship in regional development, even in remote and peripheral regions. Innovation does not need to entail high-tech international environments; it can appear as the result of efforts in low-tech industries in rural and remote environments. The authors’ findings need to be scrutinized; therefore, the authors call for more research on regional innovation systems in rural environments.

It is possible for regional authorities to orchestrate a development process through the actions of a strong regional agent but also by supporting the creation of networks of small businesses that are built on trust and common interests.

This study contributes to the literature with a new perspective to the study of entrepreneurship and of regional innovation systems. Entrepreneurship research with focus on rural contexts most often highlight limits to entrepreneurship and see entrepreneurship as “just running a business”. A perspective that starts from innovation and innovative behaviour, despite the rural context and embedded resources, helps to generate new knowledge that can enrich the understanding of entrepreneurship and also be the foundation for more precise business development policies in rural settings.

As many businesses faced economic disruption due to the Covid-19 pandemic and sought financial relief, existing bank relationships became critical to getting a loan. This study examines factors associated with the development of personal relationships of rural small businesses with community bank representatives.

We applied a mixed-method approach. We employed descriptive statistics, principal factor analysis and logistic regression for data analysis. We distributed an online survey to rural small businesses in five states in the United States. Key informant interviews with community bank representatives supplemented the survey results.

A business owner’s trust in a banker was positively associated with the establishment of a business–bank relationship. However, an analysis of individual trust’s components revealed that the nature of trust is complex, and a failure of one or more components may lead to decreased trustworthiness in a banker. Small businesses that preferred personal communication with a bank were more inclined to relationship banking.

Due to the relatively small sample size and cross-sectional data, our results may not be conclusive but should be viewed as preliminary and as suggestions for future research. Bankers should be aware of the importance of trust for small business owners and of the actions that lead to increased trustworthiness.

The study extends the existing knowledge on the business–bank relationship by focusing mainly on social (instead of economic) factors associated with the establishment of the business–bank relationship in times of crisis and high uncertainty.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the likelihood of firm exit, focusing on firm- and sector-specific factors and other potential constraints that may lead to exit.

The authors address the main research question by using hazard-cox and probit models on plant level data for the period 1998–1999 to 2012–2013, drawn from the Annual Survey of Industries collected by the Central Statistical Organisation.

The authors find that probability of exit reduces with improved firm performance. Urban firms, proprietary firms and smaller firms are more likely to exit as compared with their respective counterparts. The findings are robust to alternate measures of performance, alternate specifications and different methods.

Studies of entry and exit rates at a point in time are useful in examining the turnover of establishments. But to understand the establishment survival, the authors must also examine the probability of firm exit and the possible determinants that aid exit. There are institutional factors that prevent easy exit of firms from an industry. It would be worthwhile to see how the exit rate will be impacted if these barriers ceased to exist. In this study, the authors construct a model of exit, which would help us to predict firm exit.

Publicly available datasets in the USA present data suppression issues that limit the ability to investigate entrepreneurial subgroups like military veterans, which account for about one in ten entrepreneurs in the USA. Thus, despite public desire to support veteran entrepreneurs (“vetrepreneurs”), there is a limited descriptive understanding on the relationship between veteran business owner demographics, such as gender and race, and their business survival and growth. We address this limited understanding in this article by providing descriptive evidence on veteran-owned business survival and growth, emphasizing variation across race and gender.

We use limited-access longitudinal microdata to provide descriptive evidence on the survival and growth of veteran-owned firms across race and gender.

Findings indicate statistically significant variation across demographic subgroups’ business survival and employment growth. For example, veteran-owned firms have high women ownership rates, greater employment, revenues and payrolls, but also lower employment and revenue growth. More generally we provide descriptive evidence that military experience or the military community help women overcome the gender gap in small business survival.

This type of descriptive research is common among entrepreneurial researchers, however, peer-reviewed research specific to US veterans is very limited. These descriptive results are useful for policymakers and for spurring future policy research related to veteran entrepreneurs.

This study aims to examine the potential adaptability and resilience of rural micro-businesses within a business environment affected by successive crises, specifically drawing conclusions on crisis management, while simultaneously highlighting enterprises’ capabilities in managing the current energy crisis, basis the experiences and best practices that they themselves have gained previously.

Convenience sampling was applied, effectively identifying 18 micro-entrepreneurs in rural Greece. Subsequently, qualitative research was conducted through semi-structured in-depth interviews.

Rural micro-businesses have shown adaptability and resilience to both economic and health crises through financial support received and interventions implemented. However, different crises’ types carry different business risks. The energy crisis has led to business operation’s energy costs and raw material prices multiplying exponentially. Additionally, they received limited financial support causing them to respond to the energy crisis though concrete defensive strategies and innovative interventions.

Future research should examine local bodies and trade unions’ perception on the energy crisis’ impact towards rural entrepreneurship.

The findings are useful to Greek and European policy-makers and rural micro-entrepreneurs as the experience of dealing with several previous crises can be a useful tool when dealing with current and future crises.

This paper adds to international literature on rural micro-businesses resilience, operating in crisis mode. Additionally, it constitutes novel research exclusively focused on the new challenges faced by rural micro-businesses during the recent energy crisis.

Despite the abundance of small-scale farms in the USA and their importance for both rural economic development and food availability, the extensive research on small business management and entrepreneurship has mostly neglected the agricultural context, leaving many of these farms' business challenges unexplored. The authors focus on informing a specific decision faced by small farm managers: selling directly to consumers (i.e. farmer's markets) versus selling through aggregators. By collecting historical data and a series of interviews with industry experts, the authors employ simulation methodology to offer a framework that advises how small-scale farmers can allocate their product across these two channels to increase revenue in a given season. The results, which are relevant for operations management, small business management and entrepreneurship literature, can help small-scale farmers improve their performance and compete against their larger counterparts.

The authors rely on historical and interview data from key industry players (an aggregator and a small farm manager) to design a simulation analysis that determines which factors influence season-long farm revenue performance under varying strategies of channel allocation and commodity production.

The model suggests that farm managers should plan to evenly split their production between the two distribution channels, but if an even split is not possible, they should plan to keep a larger percentage in the nonaggregator (farmers' market/direct) channel. Further, the authors find that farmers can benefit significantly from a strong aggregator channel customer base, which suggests that farmers should promote and advertise the aggregator channel even if they only use it for a limited amount of their product.

The authors integrate small business management and operations management literature to study a widely understudied context and present practical implications for the performance of small-scale farms.