Abstract
PurposeThere is a recent growing interest to find a lasting intervention to rural poverty (RP) in developing countries based on farmer entrepreneurship and innovation. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to examine the relation between entrepreneurship and RP alleviation in two resource-constrained provinces of China. This paper assesses the influence of three capabilities of farm entrepreneurs – educational, economic and socio-cultural – on farmer entrepreneurship growth and how these, in turn, impact alleviation of RP.Design/methodology/approachHousehold survey data comprising 363 respondents were taken from four deprived communities in two provinces of China. The paper employed structural equation modeling (SEM), using AMOS 21.0 alongside SPSS 20.0 to test the relations between the constructs.FindingsThe results show that a statistically significant and positive relation exists between entrepreneurship and RP alleviation in China. The findings of the study further reveal that qualitative growth of entrepreneurship has a stronger positive influence on RP alleviation than on quantitative growth, and socio-cultural capabilities of respondents significantly and positively affect entrepreneurial growth of farmers, rather than education and economic capabilities.Research limitations/implicationsThe use of data from four communities in two provinces tends to limit the ability to generalize the findings of the study. Furthermore, the survey did not collect information on non-farm entrepreneurs, making it impossible to compare the findings from farm entrepreneurs with non-farm entrepreneurs.Practical implicationsThe findings have practical implications for policy makers in rural China toward addressing targeted RP. This paper, therefore, suggests that entrepreneurship should be pursued vigorously among farmers in rural areas of China to help solve poverty. The paper also presents a useful lesson for various stakeholders in poverty alleviation programs in other developing countries.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the academic literature on the entrepreneurship–RP alleviation nexus by combining the theory of capability and SEM in the analysis of an emerging economy such as China.
Highlights
Recent years have been witnessing a growing interest in finding a lasting intervention to rural poverty (RP) alleviation in developing countries and in entrepreneurship, which is regarded as one of the most important drivers of economic growth in many nations© Eric Yaw Naminse, Jincai Zhuang and Fangyang Zhu
Farmer entrepreneurship is becoming accepted as a rural economic development strategy, helping communities and small towns to design and implement mechanisms aimed at reducing poverty. This role played by farmer entrepreneurship to transform rural economies presents a unique opportunity to local governments, researchers and other stakeholders in China to consider pooling scarce resources to confront the status quo of the “top-down” approach to RP alleviation and help rural farmers develop and own businesses that will help create jobs, increase rural economic growth and help lift many more people off the bottom of the economic ladder in the country
This is indicative that rural agriculture still serves as a major source of employment for the teeming youth in China
Summary
Recent years have been witnessing a growing interest in finding a lasting intervention to rural poverty (RP) alleviation in developing countries and in entrepreneurship, which is regarded as one of the most important drivers of economic growth in many nations© Eric Yaw Naminse, Jincai Zhuang and Fangyang Zhu. The paper, mainly examines how three capabilities of farm entrepreneurs, namely, educational, economic and socio-cultural, impact the growth of farmer entrepreneurship (quantitatively and qualitatively) and to what extent the growth of farmer entrepreneurship has affected RP alleviation in China, using the capability theory. We define RP as the lack of economic, socio-cultural and educational capabilities of farmers to be able to convert opportunities into profitable business ventures to improve their living conditions.
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