Sustainable Rural Entrepreneurship: A Response to Unlimited Development of Entrepreneurship in Rural Areas

Entrepreneurship is known as one of the most important efforts of rural development. Scholars and policy makers believe this concept and always try to develop it in rural areas. But the question is that “is rural entrepreneurship development always appropriate?” The evidences show that unlimited development of rural entrepreneurship have dangerous consequences for rural people and households. The aim of this review study was introducing the concept of sustainable rural entrepreneurship in response to the consequences of unlimited development of rural entrepreneurship. Results showed that the consequences could be categorized in three groups of economic, social and environmental dimensions. On the other hand, entrepreneurship literature also has been made with studies on perspectives which consider these three dimensions, including economic, social, and environmental entrepreneurship. Simultaneously considering triple dimensions of entrepreneurship and sustainability creates the concept of sustainable entrepreneurship. These dimensions in the concepts of entrepreneurship and sustainability could cover the consequences of rural entrepreneurship and introduce the new concept of sustainable rural entrepreneurship.