Entrepreneurial Views and Rural Entrepreneurial Potential: Evidence from Greece

Abstract

The recent financial crisis in Greece seems to have structured a trend towards rural renaissance. This trend might be considered a chance for rural empowerment to emerge as a ‘residual’ phenomenon drawn from a return to the periphery propensity. With a view to provide insights on such possible rural empowerment, we analyse individuals’ intentions towards entrepreneurship in rural areas. At the empirical level, we assess rural entrepreneurial potential and then we test for the factors that are conducive to it under an adopted operationalization of the n-tuple helixes approach to regional development. We employ data from two sources (micro level data from the Eurobarometer survey and contextual data from the Regional Accounts of the Hellenic Statistical Authority). Bootstrap logistic regression techniques provide robust empirical evidence of the importance of various sets of parameters including actor characteristics and actions, local community ties, civil services quality, the political environment, and the regional socio-economic structure. The predominant role of pecuniary concerns manifests the strong impact that the economic environment exerts on individuals’ views towards entrepreneurship. On the other hand, individuals seem to view crisis as a chance for the private sector to develop under less protectionism and trustworthy civil services.