A Sociological Study of Entrepreneurship and its influential Factors, Case Study: Bahar District of Hamedan, Iran

Entrepreneurship is a novel economic phenomenon that significantly influences countries’ economic development. Today, entrepreneurship plays a crucial role in market and competition economics. In other words, in dynamic economics, ideas, products, and services are constantly changing; it is where the entrepreneur introduces a new pattern to adapt to the changes. Therefore, on a larger scale and within a multi-lateral interaction, entrepreneurship plays a definitive role in our lives in the modern world. In this sense, rural entrepreneurship, defined as “entrepreneurial business, industrial, and agricultural activities in rural areas which can foster economic development to a great deal,” is introduced as a relatively new concept in dynamic economics. An entrepreneurial environment welcomes risks and opportunities and knows how to benefit from environmental resources. According to the existing literature, entrepreneurs constantly look for value potentials to discover and benefit from the significant values of positive external factors. Positive incidents or opportunities can create considerable profit for one’s business if one knows how to monetize them. These external factors include the natural resources available in entrepreneurs’ work environments. The study aims to introduce a platform to promote entrepreneurship and study factors that help it thrive. To this aim, Giddens’ Theory of Structuration, which introduces a complex structure to study how opportunities, in specific, and threats, in general, appear to an entrepreneur working on a system, was employed in this study. Entrepreneurial passion is developed through the interactions between people and opportunities. This study provides a platform to examine entrepreneurial opportunities in dire need of further investigation in the Bahar District of Hamedan, a province of Iran. 

This applied research follows a descriptive-analytical approach. This study was conducted using a survey research method. The statistical population included all the families who lived in the Bahar district of Hamedan. The Cochran formula was used to determine the sample size. The sample size was set at 384 households; however, to ensure the accuracy of the resulting data, it was increased to 450 households. The participants were asked to fill out the 
questionnaire. Multi-stage cluster sampling was used to select the participants of the study. The participants were selected using the following process: first, the researchers acquired multiple maps of the housed areas. Then, to ensure the randomness of the participant selection, the researchers would choose each household randomly and interview the first person who showed up at the door, provided that he was 18 or older. SPSS was used to analyze the resulting data. The Pearson correlation coefficient and regression analysis were used to calculate the correlation between variables.

According to the analytical findings of this research, there was a positive and direct relationship between entrepreneurship and its four contributing factors social security, economic security, social trust, and hope for the future. The study results show potential individual and environmental resources in the Bahar district of Hamedan to support entrepreneurial activities and start new businesses. These individual and environmental resources predicted 0.21 of the changes associated with entrepreneurial activities, indicating that they help entrepreneurial activities and businesses thrive. In other words, creating environments where new businesses can easily grow and expand contributes to entrepreneurial activities greatly. Bahar District of Hamedan possesses relatively promising capacities which can boost social and economic development significantly if handled with proper thought and planning. The local and rural administrators have failed to create an environment conducive to the establishment of new businesses and financial development. They have mainly focused on the development of the well-being of the locals through housing. However, housing developments alone cannot lead to social and economic development in rural areas. Local administrators need to start planning for economic development by creating job opportunities for the locals. Since the Bahar district of Hamedan is one of the pathways to the Holy March of Karbala. It can bring about many opportunities for financial development for the locals through local markets, etc. The locals can sell their agricultural and handcrafted products in these markets and step on the path of entrepreneurship, ultimately leading to social and economic development. The development of rural businesses and entrepreneurial activities are two of the primary factors in rural entrepreneurship. Multiple factors contribute to rural entrepreneurship. That is why it is necessary to promote the factors supporting rural entrepreneurship in the Bahar district of Hamedan to sow the seeds of financial development in this region.