درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Purpose- Villages are full of new and undiscovered opportunities that can be explored in a timely manner to create opportunities and new businesses for the villagers. In this regard, those approaches are sustainable that, due to changes in technology and the market, constantly assess market and technological needs and provide a more appropriate employment model. To this end, development through business clusters has recently been considered by economic and industrial policies. Design/methodology/approach- The main purpose of the study was to investigate factors affecting rural tourism cluster development via a quantitative approach.  The statistical population consisted of two groups of experts in Hamadan province with 21 individuals and 360 rural households. A total of 185 rural households were randomly selected using the Krejcie and Morgan table. This research was an applied research that investigated the contribution of each independent variable in explaining the dependent variable (rural tourism cluster development) using structural equation modeling through Smart PLS6 software. Findings- The results showed that in the structural model of research, the highest effect (β=0.420) belonged to institutions on rural tourism development and the relationship was positive and significant. In total, 56 percent of the dependent variable of tourism development in Ashtaran village is explained by four factors: institutions, tourism infrastructure, economic capacities and tourism services.

Purpose - Women as half of the human resources in rural areas play an important role in entrepreneurship development in rural communities. The reinforcement of rural women entrepreneurship is an effective approach for two development indices, that is., increasing employment and reducing unemployment. So, given the significance of the sustainability of small and medium-sized businesses of women in the rural economy and rural development, it is important to identify the factors influencing the sustainability of the entrepreneurship process among them. In this respect, this study aimed to explore the factors affecting the sustainability of the business of the entrepreneur women who were members of rural microcredit funds in Mazandaran province. Design/Methodology/Approach- The research was a descriptive one. The statistical population was composed of 776 entrepreneur women who were members of 26 rural microcredit funds in Mazandaran province, out of whom 260 women were sampled based on Krejcie and Morgan’s table. The main research instrument was a self-constructed questionnaire whose face and content validity were confirmed by a panel of experts. Also, average variance extracted (AVE) and composite reliability (CR) supported the convergent validity and the reliability of the instrument, respectively. Data were analyzed by structural equation modeling using the partial least squares technique in the Smart PLS3 software package. Finding- Based on the results, the sustainable businesses of rural women who are members of rural microcredit funds were positively and significantly affected by the infrastructure, educational-skill, policymaking, economic, and environmental-geographical factors (with coefficients of 0.412, 0.219, 0.175, 0.165, and 0.137, respectively) at the 99% confidence level and by personality and attitude (0.183 and 0.162, respectively) at the 95% confidence level. These factors captured 92.3 percent of the variance in sustainable businesses. Research Limitations- The dispersion of microcredit funds across the counties and the difficulty of identifying entrepreneurs in them, which would constitute the statistical population, were the main limitations and challenges of the research. Practical Implication: The most important approaches to developing sustainable businesses among rural women include identifying motivated entrepreneur women, providing adequate facilities, raw materials, and inputs, creating job opportunities for small home jobs in villages to motivate women businesses, promoting communication between rural women and successful entrepreneurs, arranging visits of successful businesses, holding short-term applied skill development courses, and creating proper conditions for the use of the Internet and cyberspace for marketing their products. Originality/Value- Based on the results, various factors significantly influence sustainable businesses of women who are members of rural microcredit funds. Therefore, organizations and officials can contribute to the development of women’s businesses in rural areas through supporting the women by material and spiritual motivations, encouraging them, and reinforcing their commitment and responsibility.