De Gruyter Handbook of Rural Entrepreneurship in Developing Economies

Despite significant changes to the agricultural sector worldwide and major changes in demographic and population internal migrations and rural environs in recent years, the topic of rural enterprise and rural entrepreneurship in developing economies has not been the subject of concerted academic attention. As a consequence, with the exception of a few texts, the area remains relatively under-researched. This is particularly the case at the international level. This handbook aims to bridge this gap in the literature by offering a collection of contemporary research contributions that explore the complex nature of rural enterprise across a range of settings and geographical contexts. In particular, the book will include up to date policy contributions, as well as valuable insights into rural enterprise in practice in developing economies. This handbook is concerned with defining and conceptualising rural entrepreneurship in developing economies. Much rural enterprise policy tends to be US or European focussed with an almost hegemonic notion that these countries have a superior knowledge of rural policy and rural entrepreneurship. Yet, it may be the case that rural entrepreneurship in some less developed countries is actually considerably more advanced in its practice, particularly when it comes to innovation to help mitigate the effects of the climate and environmental crisis. In addition, although all regional and national economies consist of urban and rural components, much of the entrepreneurship literature tends to have an urban-centric focus. Thus, this book focuses on two important questions. Firstly, should there actually be a categorisation called ‘rural entrepreneurship’ or is it simply ‘entrepreneurial activity’ that occurs in rural environments in developed economies? Secondly, is a ‘rural’ business any different to an ‘urban’ business in terms of how it ‘does business?’ By way of laying the foundation for the wide range of contributions presented in this book a key aim is to seek to explore how and why a rural enterprise can be defined, and determine whether rural entrepreneurship is a distinctive category of entrepreneurship theory and practice.