Manifestations of Rural Entrepreneurship: the Journey so far and Future Pathways

Abstract

Rural entrepreneurship has manifested into a diverse and progressive field of research in the last two decades. It has seen research amalgamating from different fields and faculties. Rural entrepreneurship however is scattered and lacks categorization. Therefore, literature review on rural entrepreneurship to understand what has been done and what can be done seems imperative. The main aim of this paper is to offer the readers a clear picture of different categories in rural entrepreneurship research. This aim is achieved by performing a Bibliometric citation analysis and thereafter a thematic analysis to identify major areas where rural entrepreneurship research has been concentrated in the last 20 years. The study is based on 158 papers on rural entrepreneurship published in the last two decades. Despite a vast pool of publications, four major themes are identified; Spatial dimension, Sustainability, Income Generation and Barriers in rural entrepreneurship. From these themes 16 sub-themes have emerged during the review. Many gaps are identified in each category and avenues for further advancement of rural entrepreneurship is discussed.