Identifying the Antecedents of Successful Entry of Rural Women into the Field of Entrepreneurship: A Case Study of North Khorasan Province of Iran

This applied study aimed at providing a framework to identify preconditions for successful entry of rural women into the field of entrepreneurship. It was conducted in a descriptive-survey method and the required data were collected through library studies and a researcher-made questionnaire. The statistical population consisted of those women, from the villages with more than 1,000 populations in North Khorasan province of Iran, who were selected in a non-probabilistic sampling method; and among them, 383 people were selected as the sample, according to Morgan's table. In this research, structural equations were used for data analysis and Friedman test was used for ranking indicators. The findings suggested that the successful entry of rural women into the field of entrepreneurship required an "entrepreneurial capacity- building" through the creation of "rural micro-funds, facilitation of employment loans, online sales of products, permanent supply exhibitions of products, formation of Cooperative for Rural Women Entrepreneurs, guaranteed purchase of the products, Association of Rural Women Entrepreneurs Rural Creativity and Innovation Centers.