De Gruyter Handbook of Rural Entrepreneurship in Developing Economies

Despite major global shifts in agriculture, demographics, and rural environments, rural enterprise and entrepreneurship in developing economies remain underresearched, especially at the international level. This handbook addresses this gap by presenting contemporary research on rural enterprise across diverse settings, with a particular focus on Africa. It offers practical insights from countries including Egypt, Ghana, India, Kenya, Kosovo, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda. 

Much existing policy is US or Europe-centric, often assuming superior knowledge. However, the examples discussed in this volume show that rural entrepreneurship in less developed countries may be more focused and innovative than in the Global North, especially in innovating to address climate and environmental challenges due to the immediate and visible impacts of climate change on food production and weather.

This book addresses two key questions: First, in light of the fact that entrepreneurship literature tends to be urban-centric, should "rural entrepreneurship" be a distinct category, or is it simply entrepreneurial activity in rural areas? Second, is a rural business fundamentally different from an urban one in its operations?

With its wide range of contributions and unique exploration of the definition of rural enterprise, this handbook will benefit academic scholars and postgraduate students interested in rural entrepreneurship and rural development.

• Explains how and why a rural enterprise can be defined.
• Addresses the lack of knowledge about rural entrepreneurship in developing economies.
• Demonstrates how the rural economy underpins many developing economies from a sustainability point of view.

Gerard is Professor of Rural Entrepreneurship at University of York St John, York, England. His current interests are village sustainability, and illegal entrepreneurship in the rural. Gerard is a Volunteer Ranger for the North York National Park. He is passionate about the North Yorkshire Moors and Rural Issues. 

Rob Smith has been a serving police officer, in Aberdeenshire for over 25 years, before he started his new adventures in education and teaching. He was awarded his PhD in 2006. He worked at Robert Gordon University and very soon was appointed Reader. In a relatively short period of time, he was awarded his first professorial position in 2015. Following ill-health retirement from his professorial role, Rob has worked as an independent scholar and consultant, maintaining active research through visiting positions at De Montfort University, University of Leicester and with East Midlands Academic Police Collaboration [EMPAC] at Loughborough University, while continuing as a doctoral supervisor at Heriot-Watt University. This extraordinary career demonstrates how Robert successfully leveraged his practical policing experience to become an internationally respected scholar with over 200 publications, having supervised 14 doctoral students to completion and examined 30+ doctoral theses, while developing expertise spanning criminal entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial policing, community policing, rural enterprise crime, and food fraud.