نشریه مطالعات کارآفرینی و توسعه پایدار کشاورزی
سال هشتم شماره 3 (پیاپی 31، پاییز 1400)

Smart sustainable development is considered as a solution to urban development problems that aims to plan to achieve sustainable urban development. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify the components and indicators of smart sustainable development in the field of urban management. This research is based on the paradigm of interpretiveism and with inductive approach. The present study is exploratory in nature and in terms of purpose, it is a developmental research that has been done in a mixed way. The method of data collection in this research was through library studies as well as field method. The interviewees were 30 people including academic experts in the fields of management and entrepreneurship, organizational experts and senior managers in the field of urban management in Gorgan Municipality, who were selected by purposive sampling and snowball method. The findings of this study showed four dimensions in the form of 12 components and 46 indicators. The dimension of intelligent economy has four components of "entrepreneurial economy", "competitive economy", "productive economy" and "efficient economy", the dimension of intelligent society has two components of "prudent society" and "smart society", the dimension of intelligent environment has four components of "sustainability", "Efficiency", "green cities" and "efficient infrastructure", and the dimension of intelligent management are also two components of "democracy" and "creative and innovative". Therefore, based on the results obtained from the research findings, it is suggested that measures based on knowledge and communication and information innovations be made to achieve sustainable smart urban development.

In the evolving world, an organization can develop that equips its human resources with entrepreneurial knowledge and skills. Paying attention to the quality of work life of employees is one of the necessary conditions to develop the entrepreneurial spirit. Therefore, this study using the descriptive method investigated the relationship between entrepreneurial spirit and quality of work life. The statistical population of this research was agricultural extension experts in Kermanshah province. Data were collected with a questionnaire and a stratified random sampling method was used. The reliability of the questionnaire using Cronbach's alpha test for entrepreneurial spirit was calculated 0.89 and for each of the factors of quality of work life including social- communication, managerial, psychological, economic- occupational, and environmental were calculated respectively (α = 0.91, 0.88, 0.89, 0.90 and 0.84). Data analysis was performed by SPSS. Findings showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between entrepreneurship spirit and quality of work life. The results also showed a correlation between psychological, managerial, social- communication, and economic- occupational factors with the entrepreneurial spirit. Another result of this study was the significant difference between the entrepreneurial spirit of experts with the field of agricultural extension and education and experts with other fields of study. Finally, the suggestions were presented to develop the entrepreneurial spirit with an emphasis on effective variables of quality of work life.

The main purpose of this study was to compare the characteristics of members and non-member rural women in the Omid Entrepreneurship Fund of Larestan county as well as comparing the entrepreneurial activities development of these rural women before and after their membership. The research population included all rural women members of Omid Entrepreneurship Fund of Larestan county (440 individual) from the southern Fars province. According to the formula, the sample size was estimated 108 members. According to the stratified random sampling method, the respondents were selected from two groups of members (111) and non-members (105) and, finally 216 rural women were studied. This descriptive study was accomplished using survey in order to collect the required data through a questionnaire. The face validity and reliability of the questionnaire were conformed by the three professors of the Department of Agricultural Extension and Education of Shiraz University, and a pilot study was conducted outside the main sample (rural of Marvdasht county), respectively. Cronbach's alpha coefficients of the research variables were computed between 0.74 to 0.93. According to the results of members and non-members` comparison, these two groups showed significant differences in terms of personal-psychological variables (age, educational level, entrepreneurial spirit, self-efficacy and awareness of Omid Entrepreneurship Fund` plans) and some other variables such as entrepreneurship training, entrepreneurial orientation, social and organizational networking, development of entrepreneurial activities and sustainability of their activities; But there was not any differences among two groups due to government supportive policies and business environment.

In Iran, more than 95% of organizations are small and medium enterprises, which face many challenges. One of the most important of these challanges is how to finance and the tools available in it. Traditional financing tools in these businesses (capital and debt or sale of assets) do not have the necessary flexibility, and create a high cost for the business. Therefore, by using new financing tools, an attempt has been made to create the necessary flexibility in financing these institutions and reduce their risk. On the other hand, there must be correspondence between the financing tools and the life cycle of these businesses. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to introduce new financing tools, determine the characteristics of each of them and their function in the business life cycle. The research method in this research was documentary and library. Library resources were used to collect information. Research findings suggest that nano-financing can be used for small and home-based businesses, micro-financing can be used for small and medium-sized enterprises, and macro-finance can be used to finance large enterprises. On the other hand, according to Scott’s and Bruce’s business life cycle, nano-financing is used at the time of business introduction, micro-financing at the time of growth, and collective or macro-financing at the time of maturity. Therefore, it is suggested to establish specialized financing centers for small and medium companies.

The key to success in entrepreneurship education is identifying the most effective way to enhance the required knowledge and skills among students. By examining the effectiveness of different methods of entrepreneurship education, a deeper understanding of the choice of effective methods can be created to improve the educational needs of students and also to create diversity in educational techniques. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education methods for students at Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources and to provide recommendations and guidelines for improvement. The target population included all students who had passed the entrepreneurship course during the years 2016 to 2019. By conducting a survey study and collecting data from 241 students, the effectiveness of 19 teached educational methods in the entrepreneurship course was evaluated. The results showed that the methods of studying the textbook and various types of scientific visits to related businesses in agriculture and natural resources as well as industrial sectors, participation in events organized by the University Entrepreneurship Center and lectures by invited entrepreneurs in the classroom were used more. Among these methods, the textbook was the least effective, but the students believed that scientific visits, guest speakers, and activities in a business park had a significant effect on improving their knowledge and skills. The results of Wilcoxon test showed that the gap between the current status score and the effectiveness rate was significant.