Phenomenology of Rural Entrepreneurship Development Challenges from the Leading Entrepreneurs’ Viewpoints in Central District of Jiroft County

Abstract

Various evidence indicates that the analysis of the experiences of rural entrepreneurs can lead to the formation of a fundamental attitude, the examination of the existing shortcomings and challenges, the correction of the limitations ahead, the development of the future path, and ultimately, the improvement of the productivity of small enterprises. Therefore, the current study was conducted using the descriptive phenomenology method and with the aim of identifying the challenges of developing agricultural and rural entrepreneurship in the central district of Jiroft County. In this research, the Colaizzi method is used to extract meanings and concepts. Direct observations and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. The participants included leading entrepreneurs in the agricultural and rural areas of the central part of Jiroft County. Using purposeful snowball sampling, 10 participants were interviewed until reaching data saturation and the usefulness threshold of available information. Results revealed that the challenges of agricultural entrepreneurship development in rural areas were categorized into seven clusters: economic challenges, policy-making and programming, support, educational and communicative challenges, infrastructural challenges, cultural challenges, and personal-psychological challenges. Among them, the main challenges were a closed economy, centralized planning, international developments, instability in input prices and product sales, levying heavy taxes on businesses, shipping costs, lack of capital and liquidity, bank interest rate, and lack of trust in investment in the agricultural and rural sector. In the end, operational solutions were presented to control and adjust the challenges.

Keywords

• entrepreneurship development
• business owners
• phenomenology
• jiroft