Analysis of the impact of entrepreneurial capacities on balanced development of rural areas (case study: Rurales of Damghan County)

IntroductionNowadays, entrepreneurship is a key tool for rural growth and development in many countries. Therefore, many countries in the world, especially third world countries, have a special view on rural entrepreneurship. An analysis of the studies reveals the need to pay attention to entrepreneurship in achieving development, including balanced rural development. Inequality of development in rural areas on the edge of the desert has occurred, including Damghan city. It’s natural, socio-economic and physical environment systems, has faced many challenges in these settlements, which in general has led to a lack of balanced development in rural settlements of Damghan city. In line with this issue, rural entrepreneurship as a basic and parallel approach to the goals of rural development can be a great help in this regard.

The purpose of this study was to identify and analyze the relationship between entrepreneurial capacity and balanced rural development. The present study was descriptive-analytical based on the applied purpose and research method. Also, documentary and field methods were used to collect data. First of all, FANP model was used to determine the levels of development of rural areas of Damghan city based on balanced development indicators. In the second stage, a T-sample test was used for testing the entrepreneurial capacities in the studied villages. Then, with the aim of spatial analysis of the sample villages, based on the level of entrepreneurship of the cluster analysis test, the studied villages were divided into several suitable clusters. Hierarchical clustering was used for clustering. In the last step, with the help of analysis of variance, the level of entrepreneurship among the villages was compared with different levels of development. A simple regression test was used to investigate the effect of independent entrepreneurship variable on development rate. Finally, a one-way variance analysis test was used to test the mean difference between the variables in the villages (based on the level of development). In the first step to measure the level of development in the villages of the district, considering the nature of the research and the necessity of recognizing and examining the whole rural area, all the villages of the city were examined. Then, in the second step, a sampling process was performed to measure the entrepreneurial capacities in the studied rural area. To select a sample of the statistical population, the villages were classified according to three criteria: level of development, population and natural location. After classification, sample villages were selected using estimation method. In proportion to the number of villages from each class, the sample villages were randomly selected and finally 32 villages were selected as the sample villages.

The research findings showed that there were fundamental spatial differences between the villages of Damghan city. Meanwhile, some villages had a higher level of development and some had a lower level of development. As a result, this situation had led to the formation of an unbalanced spatial pattern in rural areas. On the other hand, the research findings showed that the villages studied were also different in terms of the overall level of entrepreneurship. From this perspective, the villages were divided into three categories. The first cluster or villages with medium to high entrepreneurship, the second cluster included villages with medium to low entrepreneurship and the third cluster included villages with low entrepreneurship. Therefore, after matching the level of rural development and entrepreneurial capacities, our findings showed that there was a significant relationship between entrepreneurial capacity and the level of development of the studied villages. Therefore 31% of the development variance of the sample villages was explained by the entrepreneurial capacity. Data analysis showed that the entrepreneurial situation had a significant difference in some dimensions based on the comparative comparison of the rate of rural development (underdeveloped, developing, relatively developed and developed).

Finally, the present article, based on the analysis of data, information and findings based on them reached the following results it could be acknowledged that with the increase of entrepreneurial capacities in the villages of Damghan city, the level of development will also increase. In other words, it could be concluded that the development of entrepreneurial capacities in the villages of the region could greatly reduce spatial inequalities and balance rural development. This was in line with the new common definitions of rural development that consider entrepreneurship and development as an approach. These aspects are considered innovative in terms of theories of sustainable and balanced rural development.