Trading Places: Entrepreneurs and Local Government Officials in Supporting Rural Venturing

Abstract

Based on a multiple case study of 19 rural places, we shed light on how entrepreneurs and local government officials engage in rural venturing. We conducted 58 interviews with entrepreneurs, local government officials, and association representatives. We find that entrepreneurs and government officials conduct supplementary processes to renew and preserve rural venturing. The renewal of rural venturing was generated from several embedding processes carried out by entrepreneurs, including belonging, knowing, business networking, resourcing, and business modeling that contribute to building and changing the business community. The preservation of rural venturing was originated when we brought local government officials to the foreground. We identified the embedding processes carried out by municipals officials including advocating others, creating networking arenas, crafting hybridity, crafting suitability and avoiding bureaucracy relevant for sustaining rural venturing. These processes were done in order to conserve and hybridize rural venturing. Our study, therefore, reorients embeddedness and entrepreneurship research from a focus on networks and their outcomes to what critical actors do. We also shed light on rural venturing as a multi-level phenomenon driven by the interaction of multiple stakeholders.