Full Length Research Paper

Determining factors influencing rural entrepreneurs’ success: A case study of Mahidasht township in Kermanshah province of Iran

Abdolhamid Papzan¹*, Kiumars Zarafshani¹, Malekeh Tavakoli² and Mahya Papzan³

¹Assistant Professor, Agricultural Extension and Education Department, College of Agriculture, Razi University of Kermanshah, Iran.

²Rural Development, Agricultural Extension and Education Department, College of Agriculture, Razi University of Kermanshah, Iran.

³Razi University of Kermanshah, Iran.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: hamidpapzan@razi.ac.ir. Tel: +988314274515. Fax: +988314274516.

Accepted  26 August, 2008

   Abstract

This exploratory descriptive study examined factors determining the success of rural entrepreneurs in Mahidasht township of Kermanshah province in Iran. The hypothesis is proposed that success of rural entrepreneurs is causally related to innovativeness, need for achievement, lack of bureaucracy, internal locus of con-trol, and marketing opportunities. The study was a census of 70 rural entre-preneurs currently active in agricultural and livestock productions. A valid and reliable instrument was used to collect data. The results revealed that internal factors such as innovativeness, need for achievement, internal locus of control and external factors such as bureaucracy and marketing opportunities accounted for 88% of the shared variance with entrepreneurs’ success. Structural equation modeling based on the co variances between the measures yielded an acceptable fit of the proposed model.

Key words: Rural entrepreneurship, success, structural equation modeling, Kermanshah.