Purpose: Creativity and innovation are the main foundations of sustainable rural development. Among other contributing factors, rural entrepreneurship particularly in agricultural sector can assist rural economic development by identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the sector as well as by strategic planning.
Methodology: For reaching this goal, a combination of methods (descriptive - analytical) is used. The statistical population is the villagers living in the Township located in the Golestan province in Minoodasht (10613 = N). Then 170 members of this population were chosen as sample members by random sampling method based on Cochran’s sampling formula. A self-administrated questionnaire was used to collect data and its validity was examined and confirmed by faculties and also its reliability was examined and confirmed by Cronbach’s Alpha in the pretest phase. Data were analyzed using SPSS Software.
Finding: The results of the study revealed that based on the obtained scores, the villagers can be categorized into four types in terms of rural entrepreneurship: traditional, fairly traditional, flexible, and leading. Discriminant analysis also indicated that, according to Wilkes lambda values, risk factors, income from main employment, entrepreneurship and the level of education compared to other variable can predict the level of rural entrepreneurship in Minoodasht Township better than other factors.
Research limitation: One of the main challenges in this study is to access the information of the status of rural entrepreneurship in the area.
Practical implications: Regarding the findings, strategies such as field visits and activities of successful entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship courses and creativity and so on, have been proposed.
Original/value: The importance of this research is that recognizing the variables such as risk taking status, rural income, knowledge and awareness of entrepreneurs can help to innovate and creates new job opportunities.
population, villagers living in the Township are located in the Golestan province Minoodasht (10613 = N). Then 170 members of this population were chosen as sample members by random sampling method based on Cochran’s sampling formula. A self-administrated questionnaire was used to collect data and its validity was examined and confirmed by faculties and also its reliability was examined and confirmed by Cronbach’s Alpha in the pretest phase. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. The results of the study revealed that villagers can score at four categories of rural entrepreneurship to traditional, fairly traditional, flexible, and leading villagers’ categories. Discriminant analysis also indicated that, according to Wilkes lambda values, risk factors, income from main employment, entrepreneurship and the level of education compared with other variable, better able to predict the level of rural entrepreneurship Minoodasht Township are. |