From Necessity-Driven Entrepreneurships to Opportunity-Driven Entrepreneurships: Rural Success Cases

Abstract

Literature acknowledges that, due to their low impact on economic development, necessity-driven entrepreneurs- hips should become some sort of opportunity-driven entrepreneurships, either dynamic or lifestyle. The latter being the easiest to visualize as a target for rural entrepreneurs who initially developed their business out of necessity and expect it to grow. The aim of this research is to identify the factors that could affect that transition of a necessity-dri- ven entrepreneur into a lifestyle-driven entrepreneur. By way of an exploratory study, five enterprises founded in San Pedro de Atacama and Toconao Chile are analyzed. The results demonstrate the importance of supporting necessity- driven entrepreneurships so that they turn into lifestyle-driven entrepreneurships, particularly in non-metropolitan communities, by way of public policies that strengthen the business ecosystem and deliver intellectual capital. The results of this paper could be important for the orientation of productive development policies in rural areas of coun- tries where the largest number of entrepreneurships is out of necessity”.