Rural Entrepreneurship: An Analysis of Current and Emerging Issues from the Sustainable Livelihood Framework

Abstract

Most entrepreneurship studies have an urban focus, and it is studied mainly from the perspective of opportunity exploitation. Rural entrepreneurship presents different characteristics, and it requires analysis from a resource-based view since this kind of entrepreneurial behavior takes place in rural communities under resource constraints. The sustainable livelihood perspective represents a relevant framework in rural entrepreneurship, considering resources and capacities to face poverty in rural areas. Therefore, this study presents a literature review to identify current and emerging issues in rural entrepreneurship from a sustainable livelihood framework. The literature review identifies that the main concepts involved in rural entrepreneurship and sustainable livelihood are women, poverty alleviation, youth, social entrepreneurship, and institutions. Likewise, social capital and human capital prevail as the most relevant capitals in the analyzed documents. The study offers research opportunities in emerging issues related to social entrepreneurship, governance and institutions, livelihood growth, and eco-entrepreneurship for extending the boundaries of rural entrepreneurship from the sustainable livelihood framework.

Paths out of poverty: Social entrepreneurship and sustainable development

“…Companies can use their expertise to develop affordable products or services to address the unmet needs of the poor ( Zaefarian et al, 2015 ), or empower them by treating them as suppliers, producers or consumers of the company ( Boyle and Boguslaw, 2007 ). This finding highlights the importance of exploitation of social opportunities in the entrepreneurial process and also responds to the call of scholars to study opportunities in rural areas ( Tabares et al, 2022 ). Based on the value chain theory, we make the complex approach of poverty alleviation more actionable.…”

“…Second, we analyze the mechanism of social entrepreneurship to solve rural poverty, and fill in the research gap of rural context in the field of social entrepreneurship. Most entrepreneurship research has an urban focus ( Tabares et al, 2022 ), and the social entrepreneurship literature has also largely ignored rural entrepreneurial activities, especially in underdeveloped countries, where theoretical and empirical studies are still limited. Our study therefore focuses on the countryside and finds that rural social entrepreneurship plays a key role in alleviating extreme poverty.…”

“…From a sustainable livelihood perspective, the framework proposes a multi-dimensional measurement approach with the goal of improving the livelihoods of vulnerable individuals and communities in rural areas. We argue that sustainable livelihoods are multi-dimensional, as poverty can be manifested in many ways and affected by many factors, not just income ( Tabares et al, 2022 ). Therefore, social entrepreneurship needs to take into account social, economic and ecological benefits.…”

Women entrepreneurship development and sustainable rural livelihoods in Zimbabwe

“…Woman entrepreneurship is a self-possessed, inventive and inventive women skilled of attaining economic freedom independently or in co-operation, creates work opportunities for others through originating and operating a business by keeping pace with their family, social and personal life (Shadrack & Warsanga, 2020;Tabares, Londoño-Pineda, Cano, & G omez-Montoya, 2022). Deshpande and Sethi (2009) defined women entrepreneurship is a process of boosting an idea into business venture and corporate possession that allow women economically by increasing their economic rights and position in society.…”

Alternative ecotourism perspectives within the protected conservation sites and farming communities amid environmental degradation and climate change-bound rural exercises

“…Analogously, the fundamental notion of sustainable livelihood practice is centered on five crucial posts (Tao and Wall, 2009). Hence, such pillars are livelihood assets: human capital, social capital, physical capital, natural capital, and financial capital (Rakodi, 1999; Tabares et al , 2022), and they are elemental to the poor, ethnic, and local communities (Liu et al ., 2022). Implicitly, the sixth capital outside the major five is intellectual capital, which is vital to indigenous knowledge and natural resource management for the locals.…”