Does Rural Entrepreneurship Pay?

RURAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP can help stimulate local economies by creating local jobs and providing goods and services that improve the quality of life of nearby residents. However, as Reynolds et al. (1995) note, rural entrepreneurs can face difβiculties through lack of sufβicient capital, infrastructure, and access to educated labor. These hardships often result in lower βirm entry rates when compared to urban areas and businesses characterized as low-income and low-growth. This leads to the common notion that rural entrepreneurship is necessity driven— entrepreneurs create rural businesses in order to remain in, or relocate to, a rural location (Tosterud and Habbershon 1992)