The Engine of Sustainable Rural Development:Embeddedness of Entrepreneurs in Rural Turkey

Abstract

The aim of this study is first to explore the profile of rural entrepreneurs, and second to identify the most important factors that determine their different embeddedness levels in rural areas. First, descriptive statistical techniques, and later on one of the artificial intelligence methods, i.e. rough set data analysis are used in order to investigate 255 entrepreneurs from Turkish rural areas who filled in our questionnaire. This study is the first attempt to evaluate entrepreneurs and their place in rural areas. According to the results, embeddedness of entrepreneurs is strongly associated with the remoteness of villages and the personal profile.

Keywords

• rural entrepreneurs
• embeddedness
• Turkey
• sustainable rural development

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