Business Opportunities for Rural Areas in Ilam Province
Subject Areas : Environmental policy and managementHomayoon Moradnezhadi 1 , Marjan Vahedi 2
1 - Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Rural Development, University of Ilam, Iran.
2 - Assistant Professor of Agricultural Extension and Education, Islamic Azad University, Ilam Branch, Iran.
Keywords: Employment, Rural economy, Rural area, Rural Businesses, Business opportunities,
Abstract :
The rural areas of Ilam province are facing many problems in the field of employment and production, and the development of entrepreneurial activities in these areas is very necessary. Opportunity identification has a very fundamental role in entrepreneurial activities.The study was carried out to home business opportunities for rural areas in Ilam province. The research used a combined qualitative and quantitative methodology. The methodology was qualitative in the first phase using semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. The second phase was run by a descriptive-survey methodology. Participants were purposefully selected from village administrators, experts of the Coordination Office of Economic Affairs Governor, experts of the Jahad-e Agriculture organization, experts of the Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, and experts of the Industry, Mining and Trade Organization. Data were collected from 72 participants in nine sessions as focus group discussion attended by 6-11 people. They were qualitatively analyzed by Strauss and Corbin’s constant comparison method in three coding phases. They were quantitatively analyzed with SPSS Software Package. In the end, the home businesses in priority in each Township were introduced for agricultural sector, processing industries, and handicraft industries.