Identifying the Barriers to Entrepreneurship Development in the Field of Renewable Energies in Agriculture Sector, Iran

Entrepreneurship is one of the main pillars of growth and development so that it is considered the engine of economic development in each country. With respect to the importance and high potential of renewable energy in the agricultural sector of the country, entrepreneurship can play an important role in the widespread and diverse employment of unemployed people in the country by creating new job opportunities. The purpose of this study was identifying the barriers to the development of entrepreneurship in the field of renewable energies in the agriculture sector of Iran. Therefore, the possible obstacles were extracted from an extensive literature review and followed by a field survey (questionnaire). The present research is a survey in terms of its method and it is an applied research in terms of its purpose and is a field study in terms of the extent of its supervision and control. The statistical population of the research includes 130 managers of companies active in renewable energies in‏ the Agriculture sector from across the country. The sampling technique was simple random sampling method and the sample size was determined 97 subjects by using Krejcie & Morgan table. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed using a panel of experts in the field of agricultural extension and education at Tarbiat Modares University and Faculty of Entrepreneurship of Tehran University. In order to assess the reliability of the research tool, 30 copies of the questionnaire were pretested in Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Organization of Iran and its reliability ranged from 0.7 to 0.86, which showed that the questionnaire has a good reliability. The results showed that managers believed that the main factor inhibiting the development of entrepreneurship in the field of renewable energies in Agriculture sector was the policy-making factor that the existence of unwanted regulations for obtaining bank loans placed in the first rank, And then insufficient attention to entrepreneurship development in macro policies of the country and Lack of legislative policies and tax incentives for the development of entrepreneurship in the field of renewable energies in Agriculture sector ranked second and third.