Title: Zzzz.....Some reflections on the dynamics of village entrepreneurship

Authors: Robert Smith

Addresses: The Charles P. Skene Centre for Entrepreneurship, Aberdeen Business School, The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, AB10 7QE, UK

Abstract: Using the qualitative research techniques of auto-ethnography, active reflection and natural observation to construct a data set of businesses in a village in rural Aberdeenshire, Scotland, UK this exploratory, longitudinal study examines the dynamics of village entrepreneurship in relation to those of urban entrepreneurship. It does so by analysing data on businesses in the area actively collected via a visual audit to determine whether entrepreneurship as practised in rural areas differs from that practised in urban areas. Although both fall under the same rubric and rest upon the same theories, from a practical perspective they differ dramatically in the pace of life in which they are enabled and enacted.

Keywords: village entrepreneurship; visible business community; invisible business community; dynamics; rurality; networking; narrative; rural entrepreneurs; Scotland; UK; United Kingdom; pace of life.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2008.019133

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2008 Vol.6 No.3, pp.370 - 389

Published online: 30 Jun 2008 *

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