Investigating the entrepreneurial development capacities of rural areas (Case study: Rural district of Northern Panjeh Ali, City of Ghorveh)

In recent years, village development authorities have turned to entrepreneurial capacities, which can help remove major challenges such as unemployment, low income, economic non-diversity, etc. in rural areas. The present research uses a descriptive-analytical method. It collects data from library sources and field surveys (questionnaires). The statistical population of this research consists of 9 villages of the rural district of Panjeh Ali. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation) as well as inferential statistics (one-sample t-test, Friedman test, Pearson correlation and Path analysis) were used. Research findings revealed that the villages under study have the highest capacities for entrepreneurial development in the individual dimension (mean rate of 3.25% and T statistics of 6.868, but no such a good situation was found for the rest of the areas. Friedman test results indicated the highest mean of entrepreneurial development related to the individual indicator (4.40%), while the lowest mean related to the infrastructure indicator (2.21%). Results of correlation between variables indicated a direct relationship between level of education and entrepreneurial development, as the said components decreased with the increase of the age. To examine the extent to which capacity dimensions affect entrepreneurial development, path analysis was used. Analysis findings indicated that the economic dimension had the highest effects (0.598) and the infrastructure dimension had the lowest effects (0.298).