An Analysis of the Influence of Emotional Intelligence Components on Rural Entrepreneurial Opportunities: The Case of Fars Province

Entrepreneurship as the capacity of exploring and exploitation of profitable opportunities is the center of gravity of the work and development in the present era. This study sought to answer the question of why, when, and how some people recognize and exploit opportunities, while others do not have this ability. Accordingly, this survey study was conducted to study the effects of emotional intelligence on rural entrepreneurship. For this purpose, two standardized questionnaires (Bar-on's Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i) and Scarborough and Zimmerer's Entrepreneurship Questionnaire) were used to collect data from 362 rural residents of Gallehdar district, Fars province. After confirming the validity of research tool by experts, to assess its reliability the pilot study was conducted and Cronbach's alpha coefficient was estimated from 0.76 to 0.91. The results showed that there was a significant positive correlation between emotional intelligence and entrepreneurship among participants. So, people who were better and more able to identify, control and appropriately manage self and others' emotions were more likely shown entrepreneurial tendency in comparison to others. Also, regression analysis revealed that the components of intrapersonal relationships, interpersonal relationships, adaptability and the general mood were able to predict 18.4% of the variance of the rural entrepreneurship.